Minister: Abuse victims deserve change rather than lamenting and repenting

Independent

03-03-2025

Abuse victims deserve change from institutions rather than 'lamenting and repenting', a minister said as MPs pressed for fully independent safeguarding in the Church of England (CoE).
Home Office minister Jess Phillips declined to be drawn on what changes the CoE should make in light of recent safeguarding failures after condemning abuse suffered by adults and children.
But she insisted victims of institutional abuse are owed a debt for coming forward, also saying: 'We owe them change.'
Ms Phillips, whose portfolio includes safeguarding matters, made the remarks as she responded to a House of Commons debate on safeguarding in the CoE.
Victims had urged the Church's parliament to endorse a new model which would have seen all Church-employed safeguarding officers transferred to a new independent body.
But the General Synod last month voted for a less independent model 'as the way forward in the short term' and for 'further work' to be done to implement the move to full independence.
The endorsed model would see most national staff move to a new outside non-Church body, but other diocesan and cathedral officers remaining with their current Church employers.
The Church has been plagued by safeguarding controversies over the years, with a damning report into serial abuser and Christian camp leader John Smyth leading to the resignation of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury.
Ms Phillips said: 'Whilst I cannot tell the Synod what it has to do, I condemn the acts of psychological, emotional and physical abuse and sexual abuse against both adults and children, including where they occur in religious settings or contexts.'
Ms Phillips recalled issues faced by the Houses of Parliament and how she and others fought to have an 'independent process to oversee issues of sexual abuse and violence within this institution'.
She added: 'What I know of the years of working on the frontline with victims of both historical and current abuses – usually sexual abuse that I am talking about in this particular instance – is that victims will tell me that what happened to them was horrendous.
'What continued to happen to them because of failures of institutions to act is worse.'
'While some improvements have been made, there remain systemic underlying vulnerabilities arising from the church's structure of safeguarding.
In her concluding remarks, Ms Phillips said: 'There should be no status that is protected from scrutiny and cultures of silence through wilful ignorance or, worse, malign intent to safeguard reputations above children must end. It must end wherever we see it.
'Lamenting and repenting is all well and good, but what my mum used to say to me is 'Sorry is just a word you say, changing your behaviour proves to me that you are sorry'.
'We owe a debt to the victims who come forward about any institutional abuse, we owe them more than lamenting and repenting, we owe them change.'
Opening the debate, Labour MP Luke Myer (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) said the Church is 'marking its own homework' as he called for an independent body that would provide uniform safeguarding practices across the country.
Mr Myer said: 'While some improvements have been made, there remain systemic underlying vulnerabilities arising from the church's structure of safeguarding.
'Survivors have told me that there are complex, hard to navigate structures and slow, institutionally defensive responses, and what emerged from around 2020 was a call for an independent structure to oversee safeguarding practices.'
Mr Myer referred to a 2024 report by Professor Alexis Jay entitled the Future of Church Safeguarding in the Church of England.
He said: 'Professor Jay's report said the only way in which safeguarding can be improved is by making it truly independent of the Church.
'The central problem is that the complexity of the Church means that rather than one approach, there are 42 different dioceses each with different safeguarding systems.
'Safeguarding practitioners have said that this limits effective safeguarding. As Professor Jay noted in her report, Church safeguarding service falls below the standards of consistency expected and set in secular organisations.'
Mr Myer further stated: 'It is simply not acceptable that the experience of survivors should vary depending on where they live. There must be a system that is unified and consistent, evenly resourced with the same quality of support respecting the independent expertise of safeguarding professionals.'
He concluded: 'The reality is that, as things stand, this patchwork of procedures remains and the Church remains, effectively marking its own homework. This is clearly not acceptable.'
Labour MP Marsha de Cordova, the CoE's Commons representative in her role as Second Church Estates Commissioner, said 'there is still a long way to go'.
She said: 'The Church must treat its work for independent safeguarding operations as a matter of urgency.
'We need no more blocking, we just need action, because action really will speak louder than any of the words than any of us have got to say here today.'
Jonathan Davies, the Labour MP for Mid Derbyshire, said the church 'absolutely must get this issue right', warning that 'if it fails to do so, it will face an existential threat'.