A RIGOROUS report has found Catholic schools and parishes across the Hunter are meeting key safety requirements to protect children and adults at risk from abuse.
The safeguarding audit, which occurs every three years, was published by Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd (ACSL), and scoped across the Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.
It found a 98 per cent compliance with the National Catholic Safeguarding standards (NCSS).
The Bishop of Maitland-Newcastle, Michael Kennedy, asked for the audit to be "rigorous" in its assessment following the Diocese's dark history.
"I believed this rigour was particularly important because our Diocese has been so terribly affected by the scourge of child sexual abuse and because so many survivors are suffering ongoing, even lifelong trauma," he said.
An independent legal firm whose senior auditor was a solicitor for the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse conducted the audit with ACSL, interviewing over 100 parishioners, students and parents, clergy, employees and volunteers.
Site audits were conducted over 34 per cent of the Maitland-Newcastle parishes, three schools and head offices.
The ACSL-Prolegis audit found that 96 (98 per cent) out of the 98 relevant indicators were 'Developed and Embedded' or 'Developed'.
Seven recommendations were made to improve safeguarding practices within the Diocese and were accepted and are being implemented. There were no high priority recommendations made.
Bishop Kennedy said he was pleased with the auditors' summary judgement that said that "the Diocese is successfully implementing and embedding a culture of safeguarding throughout its organisation".
"[But] there is more to do," he said.
"I assure you that over the coming years the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle will maintain its current momentum and will continue to refine and improve our safeguarding knowledge and practices, so that the safeguarding of each child and every vulnerable person is a wholly integrated and intrinsic part of everything that we do in our Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle."
The Catholic Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle is continuing to make changes with plans to rename Adamstown's St Pius X high school to Trinity Catholic College.
ACSL is working with Australian Catholic Church organisations, including dioceses, to reach the goal of having all Catholic dioceses and Religious Institutions that engage with children audited or reviewed against the NCSS by 2025.
ACSL chief executive officer, Dr Ursula Stephens acknowledged the efforts of the Diocesan safeguarding personnel to ensure that policies were being met in practice.
"Without doubt, the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle demonstrates it is committed to addressing the Church's sad history in this area," she said.
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