Safeguarding arrangements at Blackburn Cathedral are “inadequate” and require immediate action, an independent audit has concluded.
The audit was carried out by the INEQE Safeguarding Group as part of a rolling programme across the Church which is due to be completed by 2028.
It began in October 2024, two months after the BBC reported that a member of the cathedral Chapter, Canon Andrew Hindley, had been forced to retire by the then Bishop of Blackburn in 2021, and that a six-figure sum had been paid to him in a legal settlement (News, 16 August 2024). Canon Hindley has insisted that he has never posed a danger to young people or been a safeguarding risk.
The audit report was published last week. It concludes that, while there are some positive aspects to the cathedral’s safeguarding, including good practices in chorister safeguarding, these are “significantly undermined by critical vulnerabilities that demand urgent and comprehensive attention”.
Safeguarding at Blackburn Cathedral ‘inadequate’ INEQE audit reports https://t.co/opNLGbdP3B
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