A FORMER chair of Ofsted is to lead the programme board overseeing structural changes in Church of England safeguarding, it was announced on Tuesday.
Dame Christine Ryan, who chaired Ofsted from 2020 until earlier this year, will lead the Safeguarding Structures Programme Board, with a remit to implement the reforms agreed by the General Synod in February (News, 14 February).
Synod members voted for a partial outsourcing of safeguarding work, shifting the National Safeguarding Team into a new independent charity. An independent scrutiny body is also due to be created, but diocesan safeguarding staff are, for now at least, to remain employees of their respective dioceses.
It was agreed, however, that further consideration would be given for the transferral of diocesan safeguarding to an external provider. In the lead-up to the Synod vote, more than 100 members of diocesan staff expressed misgivings about the proposals to outsource their roles (News, 5 February).
On Tuesday, Dame Christine said that the programme board “aims to create a system people can trust — one that protects the vulnerable and strengthens safeguarding across the Church for the future.”
Before joining Ofsted, Dame Christine was chief executive and chief inspector of the Independent Schools Inspectorate, and a board member of the qualifications watchdog Ofqual.
The lead bishop for safeguarding, Bishop of St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Dr Joanne Grenfell, welcomed Dame Christine to the post, saying that she was “confident her compassionate and clear-sighted leadership will be instrumental as we develop the best of what we do now and create new safeguarding structures for the future”.
Dr Grenfell, who was previously the Area Bishop of Stepney, is due to end her term as lead bishop for safeguarding next April (News, 27 June).
When Synod members voted not to proceed with a full outsourcing of Church safeguarding, Dr Grenfell did not hide her disappointment. “It’s not where I wanted to be at the end of today,” she told the Church Times, but said that “there are some things that we can salvage from it” (News, 14 February).
