In this guest blog, Fr Robert Thompson, Vicar of St Mary's with All Souls', Kilburn, and St James's and the Sherriff Centre, West Hampstead, reflects on the deeper cultural and institutional challenges that continue to shape safeguarding in the Church.

When a leader associated with safeguarding failures steps into a role centred on restoration, the question is simple. On what basis?

Safeguarding within church contexts has, rightly, focused on protecting children and vulnerable adults, often where clergy or church officers have been the source of harm. But this has created a fundamental blind spot. There is far less recognition or confidence when harm flows in the opposite direction, from congregant to clergy.