Readers of this blog will be interested to read Michelle Burns’ insider account — “I Was a Diocesan Safeguarding Adviser: When a PR Firm Controls the Narrative, Truth Becomes Optional” — posted on guardingtheflock.com.

This powerful first-person account deserves careful reading by anyone concerned about safeguarding, accountability and institutional culture within the Church. Written by a former diocesan safeguarding adviser, it offers a rare insider perspective on what happens when communications strategy begins to override professional judgment and moral responsibility.

The blog does not trade in speculation or abstract critique. Instead, it describes, calmly but unflinchingly, how the growing involvement of a public-relations firm altered decision-making, constrained honest conversation and reshaped the narrative around safeguarding failures. The result, Michelle Burns argues, was an environment in which truth became negotiable and survivors’ interests were subordinated to reputational management.

For readers of churchabuse.uk, this testimony will resonate with wider concerns about transparency, independence and trust. It raises serious questions about who really controls safeguarding responses, whose voices are marginalised and what happens when image is prioritised over integrity.

Whether you are a survivor, practitioner, trustee or observer, this is an important contribution to an overdue conversation.

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