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Catholic complaints policy with escalation process

IICSA · The Roman Catholic Church Investigation Report · Issued 10 November 2020 · Addressed to: Catholic Bishops Conference

Government responseNo response yet

DeliveryNo statement from Catholic Bishops Conference found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation, C

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales and the Conference of Religious should publish a national policy for complaints about the way in which a safeguarding case is handled. The policy should deal with communication with complainants during the complaints process and set out an escalation process for all complainants to have their complaint assessed by an independent adjudicator, if they are unhappy with how their complaint has been handled.

IICSA, The Roman Catholic Church Investigation Report · 10 Nov 2020 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse reported in October 2022 that the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated in April 2021 that a framework and template for complaints, including clear communication and an escalation process, was ratified by the Bishops in November 2020 (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022). It also reported in October 2022 that by November 2021, the CSSA website had launched containing the National Safeguarding Standards, the National Safeguarding policy, and practice guidance documents (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022).

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

Government response

●No formal government response recorded

The Index has not yet recorded a verbatim government response to this recommendation.

Delivery

No statement on delivery from Catholic Bishops Conference has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

What other bodies have found

In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.

●Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse · 20 Oct 2022

On 30 April 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that a framework and template for complaints which includes the need for clear communication between the complainant and those handling the complaint, and an escalation of the process if the outcome it felt to be unsatisfactory, was ratified by the Bishops in their November Plenary Assembly in 2020. In November 2021, the CSSA website had been launched and contained the National Safeguarding Standards, the National Safeguarding policy, and practice guidance documents.

From: Recommendations - Roman Catholic Church investigation report

Site note: These are the Inquiry's own words, from its recommendations page for the Roman Catholic Church investigation report, captured by the Internet Archive on 20 October 2022. They are the Inquiry's account of what the body told it, not the body's own words.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.