1 March 2022
Chetham’s School of Music gave evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in 2019, after applying for Core Participant status. Today, 1 March 2022, the final report into residential and specialist schools has been published.
Chetham’s School of Music would like to share the following statement:
“Today, all our thoughts are with the victims and survivors. Our school can never apologise enough for the way in which former tutors betrayed and manipulated the trust that had been placed in them, and for the failure to respond appropriately to cases of abuse in the past.
“This part of our history is a matter of deep and profound regret, today and always. For every survivor and for every person affected, we are sorry.
“We also know that apologies are not enough. We must ensure that no child will ever again suffer from the failings of residential schools as in the past.
“As a result of the bravery of victims and survivors who have spoken out, this school today is a place where care for students – their happiness, their health and their wellbeing – underpins our every thought and every action. Today we renew our pledge as a school to deliver a gold standard in safeguarding.
“We wholeheartedly agree with the findings in the report and its recommendations for improved safeguarding across the UK, spanning Inspection and Enforcement, Guardianship, Regulation of Boarding Schools and the specialist nature of safeguarding in this environment. We also support calls for a mandatory reporting law to further strengthen the UK’s safeguarding standards.
“Nationwide change must follow this report. We pledge to continue to strive to play a leading role in driving that change by sharing the lessons learnt from our past experiences with education leaders at other schools and institutions. We will work for the benefit of children everywhere, not just those in our own care.
“None of this work can undo past failures, but we will do everything in our power to ensure that young people across the UK today are safer and better protected than they once were.”
You can read our previous IICSA statements here:
IICSA Statement, 1 October 2019
IICSA Statement, 27 September 2019
For more information about Safeguarding at Chetham’s, please visit our Safeguarding page.
