Following on from a decision by the National Safeguarding Steering Group of the Church of England in November, 2021 the National Safeguarding Team announced that it is carrying out a survey to listen to and help understand how best to involve victims and survivors of any form of abuse in the Church of England, in the development and implementation of a survivor engagement framework.

The survey has been designed to give victims and survivors a role and a voice in this survivor engagement framework, which it is hoped will develop and improve the wider safeguarding work of the Church of England.

The survey is open until 18th September 2022.

Those who undertake the survey will not be asked to answer questions about past or present abusive or harmful experiences, the purpose of the survey is to listen to how victims and survivors would like to be involved in developing and realising the survivor engagement network.

Bishop Julie Conalty, deputy lead safeguarding bishop for survivor engagement said: “The survivor voice is vital to our ongoing safeguarding work in the Church. It is not just about listening but acting on what we hear. This survey is part of the Church’s commitment to meaningful, transparent and impactful survivor engagement work. I hope we can learn from those who come forward and share their views to develop this new framework.”

The survey which will take about 12 to 15 minutes to complete, is anonymous and is available on the survivor engagement webpage of Church of England’s website, please see attached link https://www.churchofengland.org/safeguarding/survivor-engagement