INEQE Safeguarding Audit

The INEQE Safeguarding Audit is a major part of the Church of England’s national commitment to strengthening safeguarding culture, practice, and accountability across every diocese, cathedral, and parish. The Diocese of Coventry is undergoing the audit in 2026 with the diocesan wide surveys and evidence submission stages now complete, these happened simultaniously throughout March and April with the surveys and portals closing on 6 May. The next stage for the diocese will be audit visit in July.

Bishop Sophie welcomes this opportunity:

"2026 is a very important year for the Diocese of Coventry in terms of our safeguarding, because we faced our INEQE audit. This was not simply an inspection; this was a process to help us to be the very best we could be in terms of our safeguarding practice. It was vital that everybody got the opportunity to take part and all voices were welcome. It was not about catching us out; it was about making sure that the love of Christ could be shared across our communities in every way, in healthy ways for all ages, everywhere.”

"I encouraged you not to leave it to somebody else, and to make sure that you had your say."

Diocesan Secretary & Chief Executive, Jacqueline Ladds said:

“I believe this is a meaningful review of our safeguarding processes and an important opportunity to hear from hundreds of voices from across our diocese. This audit gives us the chance to take note of and celebrate all the important safeguarding work happening in our diocese, and the process will culminate in some recommendations for us to further improve our safeguarding practices.”

During the audit visit INEQE will speak to some specific people, probably a broad range of representatives, people and post holders from across the diocese which they selected. However, a huge part of the audit was captured through the online surveys, which were open for around 6 to 8 weeks. Over a thousand peaople took the opportunity to use their voice.

Who took part:

The short answer was everyone. We wanted this to be a meaningful review, so we looked for as many people as possible to share their voice – this was hundreds of people.

The auditors developed seven surveys, tailored to different areas of the diocese:

Parish Community
Including parishioners, worshippers, or attendees of other activity within our parishes.
Parish Workforce
Including clergy, church officers, parish staff, volunteers, choristers or bell ringers.
Victims/survivors
of church-related abuse
Children and Young People
Cathedral Workforce
Including Chapter, clergy, staff, volunteers, choristers, or bell ringers.
Cathedral Worshipping Community
Including those who visited, attended services or worshipped at Coventry Cathedral.
Central Team
Including DBF staff, Bishop's House staff, volunteers and Diocesan Synod.

Everyone was invited to complete a survey for each group that they felt applied to them, and they could access all the surveys via one link.

The link to surveys was placed prominently on the diocesan website once it was made available, around 4 weeks before the surveys opened.

Support was made available for those facilitating the surveys in a variety of contexts:

Setting up the survey in your parish:

Five steps the survey was launched in parishes:

Tell
People were told it was coming several weeks in advance, on notices, screens, and pew sheets, using the poster and media resource pack to create awareness. Once it was live, it was promoted as widely as possible.
Teach
Teaching was provided about how it was a gospel imperative to safeguard children and the vulnerable, to drive a response to action and explain why everyone should take part, using clear, warm language to encourage people to use their voice.
Tend
Attention was given to specific services, events and groups within the survey window to promote in-person signups. One or two other people were appointed to encourage engagement, and someone was available at an in-person station (posters, QR code, laptop or tablet).
Transform
The survey was used to talk about how it would help create a safer, healthier, kinder church, sharing people’s experiences of what worked well and areas for development, and improving listening, engagement and response with victims and survivors.
Treasure
People and groups who took part were celebrated, and they were encouraged to invite others to join in. Some parishes considered placing chocolates at the in-person survey point.

Engaging with the surveys with young people, accessibility challenges or limited internet availability:

Zoom workshops were held, hosted by the Rev Gareth Irvine and representatives from the safeguarding and communications teams.Options to join were offered on Wednesday 11th February and Monday 23rd, and gratitude was expressed to all those who took part and contributed. Helpful notes from these sessions were shared widely, including ideas on supporting people whose first language was not English and engaging with children and young people.

5 quick tips for ensuring safeguarding is visible in your parish:

Visible – Safeguarding posters clearly displayed in church.
Contact – ‘Who’s who’ information for safeguarding provided, ensuring the PSO’s name and contact details are prominent.
Dashboard – The safeguarding dashboard to be reviewed and updated at the next PCC meeting.
Agenda – Safeguarding meaningfully discussed at key meetings with staff and volunteers.
Digital – Safeguarding is visible and prominent on the church website.

People are encouraged to contact the Safeguarding team or the Communications Team for further support or with any questions.

The Diocesan Director of Safeguarding, Sarah Price, said:

“Although the idea of an audit could seem quite scary and this was a big piece of work, I was encouraged by the way it had been carried out in other dioceses. I look forward to seeing what recommendations we would receive when our report is finalised and then, working together with our fantastic army of volunteers, PSOs, clergy and central team, implementing them. I am proud of the huge amount of excellent safeguarding practice evident across our diocese, but I remain keen to hear how we could continue to make our churches safer.”

Why an audit and who are INEQE?

You can find out more about INEQE from their website.

The independent safeguarding audit programme for the Church of England was commissioned by the Archbishops’ Council and is overseen by the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team (NST). Led by the INEQE Safeguarding Group and working to a consistent framework, the audits test the sufficiency of safeguarding arrangements within CofE dioceses and cathedrals

All dioceses and cathedrals in the Church of England are being audited, as is the National Safeguarding Team. The Diocese of Coventry will be the eighteenth diocese to be audited.

Find out more about INEQE.

What will happen afterwards?

The reports and action plans from individual diocesan and cathedral audits can be read on the Church of England website. The Coventry audit results will be shared there and on our diocesan website when they are published in the autumn.

The recommendations of the audit will inform our ongoing practice improvement in the same way as previous audits and reviews have. Dioceses and Cathedrals that have already received their reports have typically recieved between 30 and 40 recommendations.