Most bishops and safeguarding professionals surveyed about outsourcing Church of England safeguarding activities opposed the idea, despite abuse victims being strongly in favour.
Of the bishops who responded to the survey, two thirds disagreed with the suggestion made by Professor Alexis Jay that an independent body should take over the church’s day-to-day safeguarding work, the Church Times has reported.
Her second suggestion, that oversight and scrutiny also be transferred to an independent body, did however receive majority backing.
The survey by The Response group, following the discussion of the report at General Synod, found that out of the church safeguarding professionals who responded, only 21 per cent were in favour of the first suggestion.
The unpublished survey, seen by The Church Times, also sought the opinions of survivors and their advocates, who were more convinced that all church safeguarding activities be undertaken by an independent body.
While nearly half of advocates said they would prefer the above proposal, 71% of abuse survivors favoured it.
Safeguarding measures, which protect the health, well-being and human rights of individuals, have been much higher up the Church of England’s agenda in recent years.
Discussion about Professor Jay’s report at Synod in February followed her findings that the Church has an inconsistent approach, poor data collection, inequity in funding and lacks and uniform complaints system.
The findings from the survey are due to form part of a paper which will be debated at General Synod in July.
There were 2003 responses to the Response Group’s survey, including survivors and their advocates, senior clergy, people involved in governance, deans, archdeacons and “local church”, including parish clergy, parish safeguarding officers, and churchwardens.
Only three bishops who responded said that they backed a new, independent organisation to take on the Church’s safeguarding brief.
A spokesperson for The Church of England told Premier said they will publish the survey's results in July.
