More than 50 people from across the Diocese of Northampton gathered at the St Thomas Centre at Northampton Cathedral on Saturday 3 October for the Diocese’s Safeguarding Conference 2026, reflecting on what it means to make safeguarding a shared responsibility and to place those who have been hurt at the heart of the Church’s life.The conference brought together clergy, parish safeguarding representatives, Curial staff and parish volunteers for a day of prayer, learning, conversation and reflection.
Danielle Dixon, the Diocese’s Safeguarding Coordinator, welcomed participants before Sister Anne Morris began the day by rooting the conference in prayer. Following this prayerful opening, Michelle Smith and Jennie Reynolds from West Northamptonshire Council, led a session on understanding adult safeguarding. Their presentation explored what safeguarding means in practice: recognising abuse and neglect, understanding different forms of abuse, knowing how local authority safeguarding teams respond, and understanding the importance of capacity, consent and appropriate referrals.
Participants considered real-life examples, including situations involving self-neglect, and reflected on the sometimes difficult questions of when to intervene, when to refer and how best to involve the person concerned. The discussion also highlighted the importance of the language used when raising safeguarding concerns. Participants agreed on the need for conversations to be open and honest, while using language that is sensitive and respectful towards the person involved.
The session drew on the safeguarding duties contained within the Care Act 2014, including Section 42, which sets out the circumstances in which a local authority must make enquiries where an adult with care and support needs is experiencing, or is at risk of, abuse or neglect. A key message from the morning was that safeguarding is not simply the responsibility of safeguarding professionals.
Danielle encouraged participants to see safeguarding as everyone’s responsibility, while the discussion broadened this further: Catholics are called to be not only concerned parishioners, but concerned citizens, looking out for the wellbeing of people in the communities where they live.
This has particular relevance in parish life. Parishioners and Eucharistic Ministers, for example, may visit people in their homes and sometimes become aware of circumstances that could indicate that someone is struggling or at risk. The challenge is knowing how to respond appropriately, respectfully and safely.
Following lunch, provided by Café 1850, Danielle returned to some of the key safeguarding messages and the practical responsibilities of those involved in safeguarding across the Diocese.
The afternoon then moved to a deeper reflection on the experience of those who have suffered abuse.
Putting survivors at the heart of the Church
Professor Clare Watkins of Durham University led a session entitled ‘Survivors at the heart of the Church’, drawing on her work with the Conversations, Culture and Communion project.
The project grew from Durham University’s Boundary Breaking research, which explored the experiences of survivors, parishioners, clergy, religious and others affected by abuse and its aftermath within the Catholic Church in England and Wales. Its work emphasises the need to listen to lived experience and to consider how Catholic communities can become places of safe, life-giving relationships.
Professor Watkins invited participants to consider a question that goes beyond safeguarding procedures: what does it mean for survivors to be at the heart of the Church?
She explored the voices that the Church needs to hear, the reality and impact of abuse and harm, and the wisdom that can be gained by listening to those who have been wounded.
The session also reflected on the Church’s calling to offer not only appropriate responses when concerns or disclosures arise, but ongoing care, accompaniment and opportunities for healing.
This reflects wider learning across the Catholic Church. In July, the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency published its first thematic report on survivors’ experiences of the Church, highlighting communication, consistency and compassion as fundamental to effective survivor engagement.
The conference therefore asked participants to look beyond safeguarding as a set of procedures and towards the kind of communities the Church is called to be: communities where people are listened to, treated with dignity and able to find safety and healing.
A ministry of healing and accompaniment
Deacon Peter Collins and Marie, a parish safeguarding representative and member of the Diocese’s Healing and Reconciliation Group, then shared the work being undertaken locally to support people affected by abuse.
The Healing and Reconciliation Group was established in 2019 as part of the Diocese’s commitment to improving how it responds to and engages with those who have been hurt by abuse. The group includes people with lived experience and seeks to increase awareness of abuse, understand its impact and help create a safer and more compassionate Church.
The group has already supported a range of initiatives, including Healing Masses, the diocesan Healing Garden at Northampton Cathedral, opportunities for hope and healing, LOUDfence, and the Wall of Remembrance.
The conference heard that the group now hopes to take another significant step forward by developing a diocesan ministry of care and accompaniment for those affected by abuse.
The ministry is expected to begin in early 2027 and will offer appropriately trained and supported volunteers the opportunity to accompany people who have been affected by abuse. Training, support and supervision will be provided for those who feel called and appropriately equipped to undertake this work.
The Diocese’s Healing and Reconciliation Group continues to welcome people with lived experience of abuse and others who can contribute relevant experience and wisdom to its work.
Safeguarding belongs to all of us
The conference ended with a renewed sense that safeguarding is not something that happens somewhere else, or belongs only to those with a particular role.
It is part of the way the Church lives its mission.
Whether welcoming someone at the door of a church, visiting an elderly or vulnerable parishioner, volunteering with children and young people, serving on a parish team or simply noticing that someone may need help, every member of the Church community has a part to play.
For the Diocese of Northampton, this means continuing to learn, continuing to listen and continuing to create communities where people are treated with dignity and compassion.
It also means having the humility to hear the wisdom of those who have been hurt, allowing their experience to shape the Church’s response and helping create a future in which every parish can increasingly be a place of safety, welcome, healing and hope.
As the conference reflected, safeguarding is ultimately about people and about the kind of Church we want to become together.
