The CSSA confirms safeguarding audit judgements on five religious life groups

1 June 2026

In audits of their safeguarding practice today, five religious life groups have been judged by the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) with the following grades:

• Claretian Missionaries – results being achieved
• Congregation of Our Lady of Sion – met with recommendations
• Congregation of the Franciscan Sisters of the Heart of Jesus (London) – not met
• Daughters of the Holy Spirit – met
• Society of Divine Vocations – firm progress

The Inspectorate for England and Wales report that these five religious life groups demonstrate very varied progress towards the eight national safeguarding standards.

Paul Threlfall, Quality Assurance Manager, CSSA said: “These baseline results show varying levels of safeguarding in each of the five church bodies. Some have  demonstrated satisfactory or good evidence of how they help keep people safe. Any grade of ‘not met’ is a concern to us and we will moniter improvement with urgency.

“They must each sustain a rate of progress. Only this way can they assure the public that everything possible is being done to help prevent harm.”

CSSA safeguarding audits for larger religious life groups range on a scale from: ‘below basic,’ ‘basic,’ ‘early progress,’ ‘firm progress,’ ‘results being achieved’, ‘comprehensive assurance’ and ‘exemplary.’

For smaller religious life groups, grades range from: ‘not met,’ ‘met with recommendations’ and ‘met.’ In each case, the overall grading represents a combination of their scoring across eight areas of work relating to safeguarding standards.

The CSSA publish the safeguarding audit and inspection results from every Catholic diocese, religious life group and eparchy in England and Wales. You can find the audits for religious life groups HERE.

ENDS

More information about the CSSA’s audit and inspection process can be found  HERE