SERIOUS safeguarding failings in the running of Ampleforth College, one of the country’s leading Roman Catholic public schools, exposed pupils to an unnecessary risk of abuse, a Charity Commission inquiry has concluded.
Ampleforth College, in north Yorkshire, is run by the St Laurence Educational Trust (SLET); Ampleforth Abbey, which is on the same site as the school, is run by the Ampleforth Abbey Trust (AAT).
The Charity Commission visited the site in February and March 2017 to examine governance and management, with a focus on the approach to safeguarding. The investigation was triggered by allegations, raised between 2014 and 2016, that pupils had been abused by monks and staff.
An independent inquiry in August 2018 published a highly critical report, saying that “appalling sexual abuse [was] inflicted over decades on children as young as seven”.
In 2020, the Department for Education (DfE) barred the school from taking new pupils. It said that the college had not met safeguarding and leadership standards, after an emergency Ofsted inspection earlier that year (News, 4 December 2020). The College, which said at the time that it would appeal against the decision, has since been rated “Good” by Ofsted, last September.
The Charity Commission published concluding reports on each trust, on Monday.
The AAT report states: “The inquiry found that there were a number of weaknesses and matters of concern in the administration, governance and management of the AAT by the trustees in post at the time the inquiry was opened and, in the period, up to the appointment of the IM [Interim Manager].
“The inquiry found that there were instances in which the AAT trustees did not fully comply with their responsibilities as trustees under charity law.”
At the time of the IM appointment in March 2018, five monks residing at the Abbey were subject to safeguarding plans. “The IM found that communication between AAT and SLET was ineffective and required improvement,” the AAT report says.
The SLET report makes a similar conclusion: “The SLET trustees had insufficient oversight of safeguarding matters which impacted on them acting confidently when discharging their duties to their beneficiaries.”
The AAT trustees were made aware of nine serious allegations and/or convictions between 2014 and 2016. “The inquiry found that the trustees had failed to ensure that these matters were reported to the Commission at the relevant times as serious incidents,” the report says.
A further five non-recent abuse allegations or serious safeguarding incidents involving pupils at the college were reported by the AAT trustees to the Commission’s inquiry between October 2017 and March 2018.
“The inquiry considered these matters had not been reported to the Commission in a timely manner. The events reported . . . significantly undermined the information and assurances that had been provided by the AAT trustees at the inquiry visit in February and March 2017.”
One of these, received in February 2018, related to “serious failings by certain AAT trustees in the handling of a serious safeguarding incident that took place in March 2017 that placed the pupils at the College at unnecessary risk. This incident involved the conduct of a member of the monastic community resident at the Abbey.”
The acting superior at that time “failed to recognise safeguarding concerns raised to him by individuals on at least four occasions and therefore did not refer concerns on to the safeguarding co-ordinator as required. This meant that children across the Ampleforth site were put at risk for an extended period of over nine months.
“The inquiry found that this constituted a failure to protect beneficiaries, a failure to act in the best interests of AAT and was mismanagement in the administration of AAT by the acting superior.”
Pupils were also put at risk, the inquiry says, through the Wayfarer Scheme, which involved the AAT’s offering hospitality and shelter (including overnight accommodation) to guests visiting the Abbey as part of its tradition. “However, guests were not subject to adequate background checks or risk assessments and their presence on the Ampleforth site posed a risk to the pupils due to the location of the Wayfarers’ room and a lack of adequate supervisory measures.”
The AAT report concludes: “There were serious weaknesses in the charity’s approach to, and management of, safeguarding which exposed children on the Ampleforth site to unnecessary risk. These serious failures and the public exposure of these issues in 2016 damaged public trust and confidence and caused reputational damage to AAT which the Commission concludes constituted mismanagement by the trustees in place at that time.”
Similarly, the SLET report concludes that, at the time of and during the inquiry, “there were serious weaknesses in SLET’s approach to, and management of, safeguarding which has exposed pupils at the College to undue risk.”
The situation had, however, improved for both trusts in the intervening years, and both now had “the foundations in place to ensure safeguarding is carried out effectively”. “Changes to safeguarding practice are now embedded across and throughout the charities, and there is now a professional culture adopted in the way in which safeguarding incidents are managed and addressed.”
In a statement, the AAT said: “The Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey would like to take this opportunity to offer sincere and heartfelt apology to anyone who suffered abuse while in the care of our schools, parishes, or other ministries.
“Throughout this inquiry, the trustees have co-operated with the commission and have worked hard, with the help and guidance of many professionals, to learn from past mistakes and to ensure that a positive and professional safeguarding culture is embedded in all of the abbey’s works.”