Meg Munn has announced her resignation as Independent Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel.
A spokesperson for the Church of England said: “We want to thank Meg Munn for the professional scrutiny she has brought to the Church’s safeguarding work over the past five years both as independent chair of the National Safeguarding Panel (NSP) and her more recent work on wider independent scrutiny.
“Her contribution has been invaluable, and she has worked professionally at all times. We are very sorry that she has decided to leave her work with the Church but understand and absolutely respect her decision.
“We are aware there are lessons to be learnt as we move forward to the next steps in independent scrutiny and are sorry about events in the past few weeks that led her to feel unsupported. We wish Meg well and will build on the excellent work she has established through the NSP.”
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York said: “We want to thank Meg for her work as Chair of the National Safeguarding Panel and interim Chair of the Independent Safeguarding Board – roles to which she brought huge expertise, rigour and dedication.
“We are of course saddened that she has chosen to stand down, but we understand and respect her decision.
“The remit of the interim Chair of the ISB and the other members was always to develop proposals to appoint a permanent independent Chair and additional board members. That work was always intended to move forward at pace towards the independent scrutiny that the Church urgently needs.
“This has been a very difficult period for all concerned and we regret recent events. We remain committed to moving swiftly towards a new safeguarding scrutiny body that is fully independent of the Church.”
