Baroness Cumberledge to lead review of Nolan child protection recommendations

BY CHRISTINA FARRELL
THE CATHOLIC Church has commissioned a review of its child protection procedures five years after the publication of Lord Nolan's groundbreaking report.
A commission headed by the Conservative peer Baroness Cumberledge of Newick, a former
Parliamentary UnderSecretary of Health, will consider how far the systems and processes introduced under Nolan have protected the vulnerable while at the same time being fair to those who serve the Church. Lord Nolan recommended that procedures should be reviewed every five years.
Lord Nolan's 2001 report revolutionised child protection in the Church in England and Wales. His commission made 83 recommendations for safeguarding the welfare of children and vulnerable adults. They included police checks on every candidate for the priesthood, child protection officers in every diocese and open confessionals for children. The Catholic Office for the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults (Copra), the Church's child protection agency, was established to oversee the day-today running of the operation. While critics claimed Nolan failed to adequately protect priests who were falsely accused of abuse, children's agencies insisted his report offered an example of best practice that could be replicated in the community at large.
The Cumberledge Commission's primary task will be to consider whether the aims of the Nolan report have been achieved. Other members of the 2006 corn
mission will include the former President of the Family Division Baroness ButlerSloss, as vice-chair, Rt Rev Richard Yeo, Abbot of Ampleforth, and Bishop John Arnold, who was recently appointed as moderator of the curia. The commission is expected to complete its review in spring 2007.
Cardinal Cormac MurphyO'Connor said great efforts had been made to instigate the Nolan recommendations across the dioceses of England and Wales. He confirmed that the commission would consider the effectiveness of the measures taken since 2001 and would ask whether goals in the prevention of and response to child abuse had been achieved.
"The Cumberledge Commission's review will be thorough, painstaking and independent," he said. "Where it finds that progress has been inadequate, it will recommend changes in current policy and mechanisms for implementing those changes."
Baroness Cumberledge said she was privileged to chair the commission in the important task ahead. "I very much hope that the results of our work will bring about real benefits for the Church in this difficult and highly sensitive area:" she said.
Lord Nolan's review of child protection in the Church was ordered by Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor after a series of high-profile clerical sex abuse cases in England and Wales. At the time the Cardinal was facing criticism for failing, while Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, to remove paedophile Fr Michael Hill from ministry. The priest later reoffended.