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Direct from the TC: Changes to PSO

24 February 2015

Dear Friends,

I am writing to inform you of a number of changes occurring in the Professional Standards Office.

During the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, myself and other leaders of The Salvation Army have acknowledged a number of people have been harmed at the hands of The Salvation Army in the past. We are committed to ensuring that this does not occur again.

The Salvation Army again offers its deepest and sincerest apologies to survivors and their families for the trauma this abuse caused. We continue to pray for the survivors and their families.

As an organisation, The Salvation Army is committed to ensuring no harm ever occurs again and has a no tolerance approach for abuse of any kind.

TPMC has undertaken a review and restructure of the Professional Standards Office to ensure that it can:

  1. Better achieve the outcomes of effective and efficient complaint management;
  2. Empower survivors to own their restorative journey; and
  3. Provide pastoral care and support to survivors.

TPMC have also approved a name change for PSO and it will now be known as 'Centre for Restoration'.

The Centre for Restoration is compelled by the love of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:14) and has a focus on healing and restoration.

Broadly, there are three main structural changes to the Centre for Restoration (previously known as the Professional Standards Office):

  1. Transfer of Safe Salvos to Corps and Social Mission. Reportable Conduct Investigations and Ad Hoc investigations will no longer be managed by the Centre for Restoration.
  2. The focus of Centre for Restoration investigations will only be in relation to matters pertaining to abuse. All abuse investigations will be conducted by third party providers on an outsourced basis; and
  3. Care and support to survivors is to be provided on a more geographically targeted basis, with a new position based in Queensland.

The Salvation Army is in receipt of the Consultation Paper on Redress and Civil Litigation issued by the Royal Commission on 30 January 2015, and welcomes the Royal Commission’s comments on these matters. We have been reviewing our approach to survivors and proactively implementing new measures, including the above, and the Consultation Paper affords us a further opportunity to review the way in which we engage with survivors.

We will be supporting the work of the Royal Commission by making further submissions in response to the Consultation Paper, to help all survivors receive justice with compassion and fairness.

I ask you to join me in praying for the Centre for Restoration and the important work that they do in working with survivors of abuse.

Blessings

James Condon (Commissioner)
Territorial Commander

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