A commitment to continuous improvement and an emphasis on professional learning are the standout themes of Australian Catholic Safeguarding Ltd’s annual report.
The report charts ACSL’s progress in 2024 towards its mission of a safer Church for everyone by recapping key activities in its professional learning, audit, professional standards and complaints response, and database management functions.
ACSL Chief Executive Ursula Stephens said she is proud of the work ACSL has achieved in the past year.
“[The year] was a shift for ACSL by marking the first full year of a new funding model though membership subscriptions. I’m especially pleased that this report shows how we have taken on feedback to improve our service offering for our subscribers,” Dr Stephens said.
“The people we support who are working with children and adults at risk told us that they needed more online, accessible and flexible professional development opportunities, and we have responded by launching the ACSL Learning Platform with a range of modules to cater for different learner levels.
“We have combined this with our very popular live learning series, which sees expert guest presenters leading webinars each month.
“Over 1100 people signed up to the ACSL Learning Platform in 2024, and this number is growing as we move through 2025.”
Dr Stephens said ASCL’s safeguarding audits program had “matured”, with a panel of external auditors recruited to undertake independent audits of the National Catholic Safeguarding Standards (NCSS).
“With a wider pool of auditors now available, we’re closer to our goal of having all Australian Catholic Church Authorities audited against the NCSS,” she said.
“This meaningful progress simply wouldn’t be possible without the support of our Catholic leadership.
“Our subscribers comprise over 100 Catholic organisations including dioceses, religious institutes, and Ministerial Public Juridic Persons that have collectively demonstrated their commitment to a whole of Church safeguarding approach by funding ACSL as the national office on safeguarding.”
The report is available on ACSL’s website.
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Continuous safeguarding improvement in focus as ACSL releases 2024 Annual Report (ACSL)
