Church of England ignores advice of senior bishops on safeguarding vote in ‘gut-punch’ to survivors

Church of England’s parliament meets amid ongoing crisis of confidence in senior leaders

The Church of England (C of E) has voted against immediately implementing full independent oversight of safeguarding - against the advice of its most senior bishops.

The C of E’s ruling body, the General Synod, were asked to vote on two options for overhauling its safeguarding procedures on Tuesday, following a number of abuse scandals within the Church.

The decision to delay creating a fully independent body responsible for safeguarding was criticised as a “gut-punch to survivors”.

Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley said “this looks like they are just kicking the can down the road”, adding: “We are failing our duty to victims and survivors”.

The meeting of the church’s parliament comes at a particularly tense time amid an ongoing fallout from an inquiry into historic allegations of abuse.

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby resigned in November over a damning report about the abuse of children and young men perpetrated by barrister John Smyth, and Archbishop Cottrell has faced calls to also step down over his handling of separate allegations.

Senior leaders in the C of E - including Archbishop Cottrell, the Bishop of London Sarah Mullally, and the lead Bishop for Safeguarding Joanna Grenfell - had backed the most comprehensive changes to dealing with abuse complaints, known as option four.

The Church of Synod has voted to overhaul its safeguarding practices (PA)

These changes would have seen all safeguarding officers currently working in dioceses, cathedrals, and the national church transferred to work for a new independent organisation.

However Synod members voted instead to initially implement a watered-down option, known as option three, “in the short term”, which would see most national staff move to a new non-church watchdog, but other diocesan and cathedral officers remaining with their current church employers.

The approved motion asked for “further work” to be done to assess the “legal and practical requirements necessary to implement model four”. There is no timeframe for when this work will be completed however.

Advocate for church abuse survivors, Andrew Graystone, reacted to the vote, saying: “General Synod, you have punched survivors in the gut”.

Reverend Paul Cartwright compared the decision to the delayed HS2 train project, saying: “We might have to get on the slower train.. we might run out of money, and it might not happen.” He warned that the stronger safeguards may never be put in place, saying: “It may even get curtailed”.

The Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell giving opening remarks on the first day of the Church of England's General Synod, also known as its parliament, at Church House in central London. (PA)

Lay member Sam Margrave said the move was a “huge blow to independent safeguarding”. He accused Bishop of Blackburn Philip North, who proposed the chosen changes, of moving a “wrecking amendment”, and conducting “a manipulation of the highest order”.

Bishop North told the Church’s parliament that option four was “eye-wateringly complex” and “will take years to implement, assuming it is implementable at all”, due to legal complications. He claimed that “in an attempt to repair our reputation we will make it worse”.

He also threw doubt on Alexis Jay’s report into Church of England safeguarding, saying that the data she based her research on was disputed.

Bishop North said that it would have been “irresponsible to vote for something that we couldn’t implement”. “The fear was that we would vote for something today that we couldn’t deliver”, he said.

The Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley (centre) has publicly criticised the Archbishop of York (PA)

Addressing members on Tuesday, Minister William Harwood said the culture needed to change at the very top and accused the “secretive, self-protective house of bishops” of wanting to “maintain their power base”. He told Synod that the senior group of bishops needed “wholesale route and branch change”.

Reverend Harwood commended the Bishop of Newcastle Helen-Ann Hartley for being a lone public voice criticising acting head of the C of E Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell. She has accused Archbishop Cottrell of being the “wrong person” to be leading the Church.

Peter Howell-Jones, Dean of Blackburn, told members that the C of E needed to “give away power that we have abused”.

MP Marsha de Cordova backed greater independent for Church of England safeguarding (PA)

Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, church estates commissioner who backed the postponed option four, said the Church must show parliament and the public that it is “fully committed to change”.

Reverend Jonathan Gibbs backed option three, which he said would have a better chance of changing the culture within the Church as safeguarding officers would be more connected to institutions. Canon Shayne Ardron said that option three would help “change culture from the inside”.