The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) improves the lives of people who use care services by sharing knowledge about what works.
The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has been commissioned to undertake an audit of the safeguarding arrangements of each diocese of the Church of England. The aim of these audits is to work together to understand the safeguarding journey of the diocese to date and to support the continuing improvements being made. Following pilot audits of four dioceses in 2015, an agreed audit model is being applied nationally during 2016 and 2017.
The audit of the Diocese of Norwich was carried out by Lucy Erber (the lead auditor for this diocese) and Leethen Bartholomew on 7, 8 and 9 March 2017.
The audit process incorporated an examination of files and documents, along with meetings with key individuals and a focus group of parish representatives. Unfortunately, the Diocesan Secretary was off sick during the audit, so the auditors were not able to have a conversation with him. Also, the Independent Chair of the Diocesan Safeguarding Management Group (DSMG) was also unwell, and no conversation was possible, although the auditors did meet with most members of the Safeguarding Management Group (SMG).
Details of the process are provided in the appendix.
This report was written by Lucy Erber with support from Leethen Bartholomew and quality assurance provided by Edi Carmi, the lead auditor for the project.