The CSSA judges the Diocese of Northampton as achieving ‘Comprehensive Assurance’ in safeguarding people.
4 March 2024
Northampton Diocese, in the first audit of their safeguarding practice today, has been judged by the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Authority (CSSA) as reaching ‘Comprehensive Assurance’. The safeguarding regulatory agency for England and Wales report that the Diocese demonstrate very significant evidence of working towards the eight national safeguarding standards. The Diocese was able to robustly satisfy independent auditors from within the CSSA about how it helps keep people safe.
Northampton was particularly strong in areas concerned with engaging and caring for those who report having been harmed. Auditors found that the Diocese’s work in this area often constituted best practice, and as such reached an ‘Exemplary’ standard in this area. The Diocese demonstrated innovative work in listening to, and supporting, victims and survivors. Crucially, Diocesan Leaders were seen to be driving a culture of safeguarding with robust governance processes underpinning that safeguarding leadership.
In other areas of work, clergy and lay respondents were seen to receive consistent responses from the Diocese. Human resource management in Northampton was found to be excellent. There was a very strong track record of delivery in training and meaningful communications around the safeguarding message.
The CSSA’s recommendations for Northampton focus on building on existing work that the Diocese had already recognised. This includes embedding quality assurance, continuous improvement, and learning processes.
Steve Ashley, Chief Executive Officer, CSSA, says: “We are pleased to have found enough evidence in this Diocese to judge that their safeguarding work offers ‘Comprehensive Assurance’. It is very good to see this level of good practice, particularly when it comes to listening to survivors. We think that Northampton’s leadership in this field could be modelled for others.
“The CSSA sets high standards, for which we make no apology. So, to see Northampton reach this standard in safeguarding is very encouraging. They must now maintain this consistently and grow even further.”
Having exceeded potential lower gradings (in a scale ranging from ‘below basic,’ ‘basic’ ‘early progress’ ‘firm progress’ and ‘results being achieved’) Northampton have further work to do to achieve the one higher possible grading (‘Exemplary’). The overall grading of ‘Comprehensive Assurance’ represents a combination of the Diocese’s scoring across eight areas of work relating to safeguarding standards.
The CSSA publish the Executive Summary of safeguarding audits from every Catholic Church body in England and Wales. You can find the Executive Summary of Northampton’s audit HERE
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More information about the CSSA’s audit process can be found here.