The Church in Wales welcomes today’s (October 20) final report from the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse and commits to taking its recommendations extremely seriously.
The Church’s safeguarding policies and practices and its response to allegations of child sexual abuse were examined by the Tribunal panel during public hearings in July 2019. IICSA published its interim report on the Anglican Churches in England and Wales in October 2020.
Statement in response to IICSA’s final report
We welcome the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s final report published today (THURS). The Inquiry, in which the Church in Wales took part as a core participant, has been a mammoth task and we pay tribute to the Tribunal panel and supporting staff for their thorough work and dedication over the past seven years.
Most of all we thank the victims and survivors of abuse for engaging with what must have been an extremely difficult process, requiring significant courage.
The report is a substantial document which we will now take time to digest and consider. We will continue to take any more recommendations the report makes for us extremely seriously as we are committed to developing the best possible standards in safeguarding.
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. We continue to invest substantially in our people, our processes and our training to achieve this.
We know that we have failed in the past in a number of areas and we once again apologise unreservedly to those who have been affected as a result. We hold all survivors of abuse in our prayers and are ready to support anyone who comes forward with any concern.
