5.2 Complaints about the safeguarding service

Analysis The auditors judged that Bradford Cathedral benefits from quality assurance and scrutiny from a highly-skilled and experienced Chapter. There is much evidence of effective strategic safeguarding scrutiny. There is now an opportunity to further develop this to ensure that Chapter reliably receives the appropriate level of information, and to formalise wider activities into a quality-assurance framework. Bradford Cathedral has developed a strong foundation of governance which is well placed to fulfil its quality assurance. The auditors heard how Chapter at Bradford Cathedral is an effective group, and provides a high degree of scrutiny and input. The auditors recognised this through the records of discussion, which reflects challenge, extensive discussion and the holding of others to account for progress and action. This is effectively supported by the diocesan Strategic Safeguarding Committee (DSAP) and Operational Safeguarding Committee, and the Cathedral’s own safeguarding committee, with an independent member (discussed further in section 5.4). The auditors reflected positively on the examples of wider quality-assurance activities that have taken place within the Cathedral, in particular those that have looked at learning opportunities from case work to better inform and develop wider safeguarding efforts. However, this is not yet built into a coherent and consistent framework in which potential sources of learning are identified and activities planned for a more routine engagement in quality-assurance opportunities. The auditors also considered that the current risk register is not yet capturing the optimum level of strategic risk detail to appropriately inform Chapter of risk and promote oversight and scrutiny. Those risks that do relate to safeguarding are notably specific (for example, photography of children in the Cathedral), but do not include the wider risks that a cathedral may encounter. This leaves a register that is therefore unhelpfully vast in what it is covering. The auditors were confident in the risk assessment happening at lower levels of the organisation, and now see an opportunity to ensure that is effectively ‘filtering-up’ into the document that the risk register is intended to be.

Questions for the Cathedral to consider

• Who would be best placed to contribute to the development of a quality-assurance and learning framework for safeguarding? • Is the Cathedral confident that its current risk register reflects the Cathedral’s context, and contains the appropriate depth of detail required for strategic oversight?

A good complaints policy enables people to raise concerns, and to have timely and appropriate consideration of any problems. A strong policy is clear about who complaints should be made to, and how they can be escalated if necessary. Positive features include an independent element, and clarity that raising a safeguarding concern, and making a complaint about a safeguarding service, are two distinct things. Bradford Cathedral has adopted the Diocese of Leeds’s policy on the making of