The CSSA confirms safeguarding audit judgements on five religious life groups

11 April 2025

In the first audit of their safeguarding practice today, five religious life groups have been judged by the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA) to be graded as follows:

Franciscan Missionaries of St Joseph – Results Being Achieved

Pontifical Institute of Religious Teachers Filippini – Met with Recommendations

Sisters of Providence, Rosminian – Met with Recommendations

Scalabrini Fathers – Early Progress

Unnamed Religious Life Group[1] – Early Progress

The Inspectorate for England and Wales report that these religious life groups demonstrate varying levels of progress towards the eight national safeguarding standards. They were individually able to offer some level of evidence to independent analysts from within the CSSA about how they help keep people safe, with more work to be done.

Steve Ashley, Chief Executive Officer, CSSA says: “These baseline results show different levels of safeguarding in the five church bodies. In some cases, there is a significant amount of work to be done.

“Each one must keep sustaining and improving. Only this way can they assure a wider 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 Church body in England and Wales. You can find the audits for religious life groups HERE.

ENDS

Footnote:

[1] In accordance with CSSA practice, a redacted version of this report has been published in order to mitigate an identified risk of harm to individuals.

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

Journalists: to speak with Steve Ashley, CEO, please initially contact Sarah Gleadall: sarah.gleadall@catholicsafeguarding.org.uk