Survivors’
work
with
us

Survivors of Catholic church-related abuse

Our work is informed by the suffering of those who have been abused by their contact with the Catholic Church. We seek to work with survivors – collaboratively, respectfully, and in a spirit of shared ambition – to prevent harm. We actively seek insight from those with lived experience of abuse, in both formal and informal ways.

Some survivors have worked with us on improving our inspection process – helping ensure we ask the right questions at the right time in the right way. Other survivors have been a vital part of our interview panel for our Chair, CEO and Board members. This formal work is coordinated through our survivor panel.

Other survivors prefer to talk to us in different ways. They might want to raise our attention to others’ work in the field, or to challenge us on how we are doing. Some survivors are still part of the Catholic Church, others not.  A survivor may purely need to be heard by us – to know that what can be done is being done, to protect others from harm in the Catholic Church.

We never presume that one individual’s experience is similar to another’s. We respect every survivor’s voice. We understand from survivors we have talked to, that church-related abuse takes many forms. We know how and where to direct people to sources of therapeutic support where it is needed or wished for.

You can read about our Board’s commitment to working with victims and survivors HERE.

Public calls for information

We regularly carry out a ‘public call for information’. These are opportunities for anybody with information to share with us, ahead of our inspections or audits, to come forward in a safe way. We will assess whatever information about safeguarding comes in to us, and it may directly contribute to our  inspections and audits of dioceses and religious life groups. You can remain anonymous if you wish.

If you are a survivor of abuse in the Catholic church, we recognise what a difficult step this may be for you. For some, it may be traumatising. Support is available. We thank you for your courage.

To find out more about our current public calls for information, and how you can contribute, please visit our dedicated page HERE

On our news pages we publish words from survivors such as Abigail, Michael and Rebecca, who have worked with us and who encourage people to share information with us.