‘Satisfactory progress with more work to be done’: The CSSA publish results of their first safeguarding audit of Caldey Abbey.

10 December 2025

The Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) today (10 December 2025) publish their first baseline audit of Caldey Abbey, with an overall grading of ‘Results Being Achieved’ across eight national safeguarding standards. The Inspectorate brought forward their audit based on evidence of risk presented by survivors and other recent reviews. The CSSA will continue to moniter progress.

Caldey Abbey, a monastery of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, has been the subject of public scrutiny since awareness was raised by survivors of their suffering perpetrated by a monk, now deceased. The Abbey’s longstanding failure to recognise and address the harm caused by this prolific abuser was the subject of a review into allegations of non-recent childhood abuse (by Jan Pickles OBE). It prompted the CSSA to bring forward this baseline audit. The Inspectorate allowed a six-month period for the Abbey to implement the review recommendations of Jan Pickles’ report.

The CSSA found the Abbey to reach the grade of ‘Results Being Achieved’ in areas to do with communicating safeguarding, managing allegations, HR, and safeguarding training. ‘Results being Achieved’ was also judged across the Abbey’s leadership and engaging with those who had been harmed.

Steve Ashley, CEO, CSSA said: “We know that survivors of abuse at Caldey Abbey continue to suffer hurt from their experiences every day. We were mindful of this in every aspect of our review of safeguarding today at Caldey Abbey.

“We are satisfied, based on the evidence we have seen, that Caldey is so far acting on the recommendations that have come before, putting in place safeguarding measures to help ensure that atrocities of the past cannot be repeated. They still, however, have a long way to go in several areas and they must sustain the pace of improvement. We will monitor very closely their progress – particularly in the cultural change we expect to see, and leaders’ commitment to keeping people safe. Our work here is not over.

“For some survivors, we know that this may be acutely difficult. The CSSA will continue moniter Caldey’s progress in safeguarding and hold them to account. We will publish the results of what we find, every time.  We hope that this can offer some level of assurance about prevention of harm. Our door is open to any survivor who would like to talk to us about the evidence which led us to our conclusion about safeguarding at Caldey Abbey.”

ENDS

Notes to Editors

• A copy of the safeguarding audit report can be found HERE
• If you are a survivor of abuse at Caldey Abbey and would like to speak to one of the team at the CSSA, please email: sarah.gleadall@catholicsafeguarding.org.uk
• If you are a journalist and would like to speak to someone from the CSSA, please initially contact Sarah Gleadall: sarah.gleadall@catholicsafeguarding.org.uk