Note from Nazir

11 January 2024

I’d like to take the opportunity, in this first word of the year, to wish you all a happy and healthy 2024.

I have noticed that many people wish others ‘success’ at this time of year.  I see this as a relative thing. If we all define our worth in terms of success or failure, it leaves little space to acknowledge the endeavour, endurance or simply hard graft that most of us do every day – whether that’s in our professional or personal lives.

When it comes to safeguarding people, success could be seen as the absence of harm, the mitigation of risk. It doesn’t always get the headlines, but prevention is the most important thing for any of us – whether a survivor, a safeguarding professional, a leader, a member of, or onlooker to, the Catholic Church. Keeping people safe is the biggest success we could strive for.

Over 2024 we will occasionally offer a platform to voices of those working to do just that – keep people safe in the Catholic Church.  The aim is to shine a light on the safeguarding stories which are not always recognised.

This month, you can read about the experiences of a safeguarding director, Jim Hopkinson, and his colleagues at Ampleforth Abbey who have recently been audited. You can read about their safeguarding journey in a guest piece HERE.

Whether you work in safeguarding or care about its success, thank you for helping prevent harm – to that end, I wish you a successful year.

Nazir Afzal, OBE, Chair