The CSSA confirms safeguarding audit judgements on six religious life groups

1 July 2026

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

Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul – comprehensive assurance

Order of St Augustine – comprehensive assurance

Order of the Friars Minor Conventual (The Greyfriars) – comprehensive assurance

Sisters of St Joseph of Annecy – comprehensive assurance

Sisters of the Holy Cross – met

Sisters of the Holy Family Bordeaux – comprehensive assurance

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

Paul Threlfall, Quality Assurance Manager, CSSA said: “These baseline results show strong levels of safeguarding in each of the six church bodies. They have each demonstrated good evidence of how they help keep people safe and they should be pleased with their results. Some of these orders have had safeguarding failures in the past, which is why being held to account today is so important.

“They must each sustain a rate of progress. 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,’ ‘results being achieved’, ‘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.