The Church in Wales welcomes today’s report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse on the Anglican Churches in England and Wales and commits to taking all its recommendations extremely seriously.
The IICSA report is based on public hearings held during July 2019, which examined our response to allegations of child sexual abuse, as well as the adequacy of our safeguarding policies and practices.
The full statement follows.
Statement in response to the IICSA report
We welcome the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s report on the Anglican Churches in England and Wales, published today (Oct 6), and we thank the panel and staff of the Inquiry for their thorough and careful work to produce it.
We will be taking all the recommendations extremely seriously. Our priority is to be a church where everyone is, and feels, safe and welcome and where safeguarding is understood to be the responsibility of everybody.
The Report makes a number of pertinent observations for the improvement of the practices and policies we presented to the Inquiry in July 2019. We will be examining these in detail and reporting back on our plans to implement those which remain outstanding.
We have invested, and continue to invest, in our people and processes as a key priority for the whole of the Church in Wales. We are also looking at how to enhance our working relationship with the Church of England and statutory agencies.
We know that we have failed in the past in a number of areas and we apologise unreservedly to those who have been affected as a result. We continue to hold all survivors of abuse in our prayers and are ready to support anyone who comes forward with any concern.
If you are affected by the publication of this report and want to talk to someone independently, please:
- Call the Safe Spaces helpline on 0300 303 1056 or email: safespaces@victimsupport.org.uk
- Contact the Provincial Safeguarding Officers – details here
