Recommendation 51: Review Catholic safeguarding policies manual
From The Roman Catholic Church Investigation Report, published 10 November 2020.
Recommendation
The Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service should review its policies and procedures manual and the documents within it to ensure that they are consistent, easier to follow and more accessible.
In brief (written by this site)
The record holds no direct response from the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022). The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse reported that in November 2021 the CSSA website had launched containing the National Safeguarding Standards, the National Safeguarding policy, and practice guidance documents (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022). It recorded that the Catholic Council for the Inquiry had stated in September 2021 that national safeguarding policies and procedures were live documents that remained "subject to review and refinement", following revisions published in early 2020 to reduce complexity (The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, Oct 2022).
Sources
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
No government response to this recommendation is on the record yet.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service has been found in the sources searched (last checked 2 October 2026). This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (20 October 2022)
On 7 May 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that a review of the Catholic Safeguarding Advisory Service policy and procedures took place immediately after the Inquiry’s hearings in November 2019.The updates to policy and revisions to presentation of the different policy documents, were implemented and published on the CSAS website early in 2020. The Catholic Council also stated that work is underway to review the existing national policy and procedures to reduce the length and complexity of these documents. The presentation of the revised policies and procedures aims to achieve high level simplified information that will be easily accessible to different roles within the church. On 30 September 2021, the Catholic Council for the Inquiry stated that the national safeguarding policies and procedures are live documents and remain subject to review and refinement to ensure that they align with the new national safeguarding standards which will be launched at the end of October 2021. The new CSSA website is being finalised and this too will be launched by the end of October 2021. The national safeguarding standards, safeguarding policies and supporting practice guidance will be published on this site. In November 2021, the CSSA website had been launched and contained the National Safeguarding Standards, the National Safeguarding policy, and practice guidance documents.
From: Recommendations - Roman Catholic Church investigation report
Site note: These are the Inquiry's own words, from its recommendations page for the Roman Catholic Church investigation report, captured by the Internet Archive on 20 October 2022. They are the Inquiry's account of what the body told it, not the body's own words.
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse
Finding