CSSA work with religious life groups

19 February 2024

I am so pleased to have recently joined the CSSA Board as Lead Religious for Safeguarding. I am strongly involved in safeguarding in several other professional and religious roles. So, I feel I speak from experience when I say that never has there been a more important time for us all to embrace regulation in safeguarding. It is the only way forward for us all to be reassured that we are doing everything we can to keep people safe.

Safeguarding in itself struggles with an identity problem, I often think. Many I talk to in religious life groups find the process challenging.  It is often associated with paperwork, with forms, with bureaucratic duties and obligations.

Of course, paperwork is part of it.  But more importantly, there is the bigger picture. For me, it’s about our shared and wholehearted desire to make the Catholic Church a safe place for all. A place where people are safe to come together, in their communities and in their worship. When it comes down to it, safeguarding is about how we respond to people.

Religious Life Groups take on many, many different forms. I can hardly keep up with it myself – just how many there are in England and Wales. There is no one size fits all. But when we think about safeguarding it’s our responsibility to find a shared agenda, with shared values.

I’m determined that as part of my new role at the CSSA, we expand our attention to religious life groups in a big way. The CSSA audit team will soon start their schedule of baseline audits of Religious. If you represent a religious life group, you will no doubt have questions about what to expect. There is support and information available. No question too small. Just get in touch with me or the team, and we’d be happy to help.

It is all of our responsibility to be transparent and accountable in our safeguarding, to help reassure everybody that we are working hard to keep people safe.

Sister Una Coogan

You can get in touch with me by emailing: una.coogan@catholicsafeguarding.org.uk

You can read about Sister Una’s background here.