Audit of safeguarding in our diocese

One of the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was that safeguarding policies and procedures in every Church of England diocese should be subject to an external audit. The INEQE safeguarding group was appointed by the Archbishops’ Council in 2023 to carry out these external audits, to make sure dioceses and cathedrals are doing all they can to create environments where everyone feels safe. So far, they have completed audits in 11 CofE dioceses, and the reports on each of those dioceses can be read here.

It was recently the turn of the Diocese of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Cathedral to be audited. The audit involves two main elements: a safeguarding survey and an in-person visit.

Safeguarding survey

INEQE held an online survey that allowed all stakeholders to comment on safeguarding across our diocese. This was available from February to April 2025, and was completed by 642 individuals. It gave the auditors an idea of the culture relating to safeguarding in our parishes, and helps them to decide what questions to ask us during our in-person visit. We also supplied the auditors with 366 documents before and during their visit. 

In-person visit

The auditors also made an in-person visit to our diocese between June 2-6, 2025. They conducted some interviews and brought together some focus groups, seeing 115 people overall. 

Publication

We are expecting the conclusions of this audit to be published on the INEQE website in September 2025. Although it is an Ofsted-style audit, their conclusions will be more nuanced than ‘excellent’, ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. There are likely to be some recommendations for us as a diocese to implement.

Our ‘single points of contact’ for this audit are Head of Safeguarding Emily Hassan (for the diocese) and Canon Harriet Neale-Stevens (for the cathedral), so do contact them with any queries on INEQEaudit@portsmouth.anglican.org.