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

Daughters of Divine Love – Firm Progress
Daughters of Mary Mother of Mercy – Basic
Missionary Society of St Columban – Comprehensive Assurance
Society of Christ – Basic
Union of the Sisters of Mercy of Great Britain – Comprehensive Assurance

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

Steve Ashley, Chief Executive Officer, CSSA said: “These baseline results show very different levels of safeguarding in each of the five church bodies.

“Two religious life groups have received the second highest grade possible, demonstrating very good evidence of how they keep people safe. The two with grades of ‘basic’ are of concern to us and we will hold them to account.

They must each either sustain progress and make very significant improvement. 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,’ ‘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