Lessons Learned Reviews
House of Bishops guidance states that once all matters relating to a safeguarding concern or allegation against a church officer have been completed, lessons should be identified and learnt from the case. The guidance is clear that the majority of lessons learnt case reviews will be an internal review but in certain complex cases this may involve commissioning an independent review.
The Diocese of Newcastle has commissioned independent reviewers to prepare ‘Lessons Learned Reviews’ on the following cases:
Independent Governance
The Diocese has a group of senior clergy, church officers and external safeguarding professionals, independently chaired by an external safeguarding expert. The group is responsible for overseeing the implementation of policy, training and the effectiveness and quality of safeguarding arrangements. For more information click here.
Safeguarding Advisory Group: Terms of Reference (2023).
SCIE Diocese of Newcastle independent safeguarding audit (November 2016)
Diocesan Board of Finance Complaint's Policy and Procedure (2020)
Past Cases Review 2
The Past Cases Review 2 (PCR2) was run in all Church of England dioceses between 2019 - 2022.
Past Cases Review 1 (PCR1) was commissioned because of several Church of England clergy and church officers being charged with sexual offences against children. PCR1 was conducted between 2007 and 2009. In May 2016 concerns were raised regarding the judgements presented from PCR1. An Independent Scrutiny Team concluded that whilst the review was well motivated and thoughtfully planned, limitations existed in relation to its execution. As a result, Past Cases Review 2 (PCR2) was commissioned by the Archbishops’ Council in 2019 as part of the overall commitment to improving the way in which the Church responds to allegations and concerns.
The National Report was published in October 2022.
For Newcastle Diocese Past Case review report please click here.
Independent Review - John Smyth
The independent review by Keith Makin into the Church of England’s handling of allegations of serious abuse by the late John Smyth has been published. You can view it here.
If you or anyone you are in contact with are affected by the publication of this report and want to talk to someone independently please call the Safe Spaces helpline on 0300 303 1056 or visit safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk.
For safeguarding enquiries contact safeguarding@newcastle.anglican.org
Sunderland University Collaboration
Dr Lesley Deacon is a qualified social worker, and to re-register with Social Work England, she needed to complete a 30-day placement. This was agreed upon and arranged with the Diocesan Safeguarding team, and that this would partly involve the design and implementation of a piece of research for the Diocese.
The aim of the research was to understand the experiences of incumbents, parish safeguarding officers (PSOs) and churchwardens when implementing safeguarding policy into practice within their parish.
The research began through the completion of a scoping review – engaging in informal conversations with a range of incumbents and PSOs across the Diocese.
The research plan for this included the following elements:
- Focus: hear the voices of those who are responsible for implementing safeguarding practice across the Diocese.
- A detailed, mixed methods self-completion online survey was created (print version also available).
- Mixed – including closed question (for measurement) and open questions (for narratives i.e. more detailed explanations).
- The survey link was shared via email through the internal email system for all incumbents, PSOs and churchwardens.
The findings from this research can be found here and the powerpoint presentation, which goes alongside this can be found here.