Understanding How You Can Claim for Physical Abuse in Church
If you suffered physical abuse in church, you may be eligible for compensation. Many abuse survivors were told that being physically hurt was discipline or part of growing up. In a lot of cases, survivors have been made to feel that this abuse was somehow their own fault. Some have lived with those messages for years, making it difficult to recognise what happened as abuse
You do not have to decide what to call your experience today, and you do not have to decide whether to make an application. Take your time. Read a little now, come back later if you need to, and only do what feels right for you.
This page explains how the Church of England Redress Scheme defines physical abuse, who may be able to apply, and how the scheme works in cases like these. It is written for survivors, as well as for family members, friends and anyone supporting someone who has been affected by Church-related abuse.
We explain everything in straightforward language first. Where the legal wording is important, we have included the exact text from the Church of England Redress Scheme legislation so you can see what the law says as well as our explanation of it. If you prefer, you can simply read the plain English sections and skip the legal extracts.
If at any point you would rather talk to someone independent of any claim, the support organisations listed near the foot of this page are there for that. They are free, confidential, and entirely separate from Winston Solicitors and from the Church of England.
A Note About Rules & Measures
Please note that all rules and measures quoted were accurate at time of publication and in line with the updated Church of England Redress Scheme rules and measures as at July 2026. These are subject to change in line with the Church of England Redress Scheme updates as the General Synod makes revisions ahead of the Scheme going live.
What Does the Scheme Mean by Physical Abuse?
Physical abuse means someone deliberately causing you physical pain or injury.
That might include being hit, slapped, punched, kicked, beaten or physically hurt in another deliberate way. It does not matter what the behaviour was called at the time. If someone in a Church role deliberately caused you physical pain or injury, this is the type of abuse the Church of England Redress Scheme is designed to recognise.
Many survivors struggle with this because what happened was described as discipline, punishment or simply "how things were". Physical punishment was common in some Church schools, children's homes, choirs and youth settings for many years. But something being accepted at the time does not mean it was acceptable.
The Redress Scheme is not concerned with whether a particular behaviour was considered normal decades ago. It looks at whether someone deliberately caused you physical pain or injury.
The definition used by the scheme is set out below.
Where this comes from in the rules
“The ‘physical abuse’ by one person (A) of another (B) includes the deliberate infliction by A of physical pain or injury on B, whether by hitting, smacking, kicking, slapping or stabbing or by some other means.”
Rule 2(3), Abuse Redress Rules 2025
One word in that wording matters: “includes”. The list of examples is not a closed door. It sets out the kinds of conduct the scheme recognises, and the redress body looks at the facts of your case alongside it. If what happened to you was a deliberate act that caused you pain or injury, it falls within the scope the scheme was designed for, whether or not it appears word for word in the list. A specialist scheme solicitor can tell you how it is likely to be read.
Do I Need to Have Reported It and Do I Need Evidence?
No, you do not need to have reported physical abuse in church. Many survivors worry that they cannot apply because they never told anyone, never went to the police or have no paperwork to prove what happened. None of those things automatically prevent you from making an application.
There does not need to have been a police report. Nobody needs to have been arrested, charged or convicted. It also does not matter how long ago the abuse happened.
The Redress Scheme uses the civil standard of proof, known as the balance of probabilities. This simply means the redress body decides whether it is more likely than not that the abuse happened. That is a much lower threshold than the criminal standard of proof.
Supporting documents can still be helpful where they exist. Medical records, school records, letters, diaries and statements from people you spoke to can all assist. But many survivors have none of these, particularly where the abuse happened decades ago. The scheme recognises that reality.
If further information is needed, there are ways for records to be obtained as part of the application process. Our Evidence page explains this in more detail.
Where this comes from in the rules
The scheme decides cases on the balance of probabilities, meaning more likely than not. This is the civil standard of proof, a lower threshold than the criminal standard (“beyond reasonable doubt”) that a criminal court applies before it can convict.
Records that can help include medical notes, school or children’s home records, letters or diaries from the time, and statements from anyone you told then or since. If you have none of these, it does not stop you applying. The process is built to gather what is available, at a pace you can manage. The full detail on what helps lives on our evidence page.
How Is Physical Abuse in Church Assessed for Compensation?
Every application is assessed using the same statutory framework.
The Redress Scheme looks at the seriousness of the abuse, the impact it has had on your life and whether there are factors that make the case more serious. Awards range from £5,000 to £660,000.
Where this comes from in the rules
The five-step calculation, with awards ranging from £5,000 to £660,000, is set out in Schedule 1 of the Abuse Redress Rules 2025. The first step ranks the severity of the abuse. Later steps apply aggravating factors, an impact award, and any exceptional uplift.
Our Compensation Amounts page explains each stage in detail.
The way the Church responded can also affect the level of an award. For example, the Rules recognise situations where concerns were ignored, reports were dismissed, someone was pressured into silence or the Church failed to act despite knowing there was a risk.
Where the survivor was under 18 at the time of the abuse, that is also recognised within the assessment. Our Childhood Abuse page explains this in more detail.
If you would simply like an idea of how the scheme works, our Church of England Redress Scheme Compensation Calculator provides a private estimate based on the statutory assessment. It asks for no contact details, stores no information and runs entirely within your browser.
What Does the Process Feel Like in Practice?
The scheme has been built to be gentle. You are not cross-examined. You are not put on a witness stand. Your account is given in writing, prepared with your solicitor, at a pace you control. How much detail you share is your decision.
You can pause an application at any time. If you need to step back, you step back, and the clock stops when you stop.
Where this comes from in the rules
Rule 26 of the Abuse Redress Rules 2025 gives the applicant the right to pause an application.
What Does It Cost to Use a Solicitor?
If your application succeeds, your solicitor’s costs are dealt with through the scheme, not taken out of your redress payment.
The full position on costs, and how it works, lives on our legal costs page.
What About a Civil Claim?
Taking an award under this scheme means you give up the right to bring a separate civil court claim against the Church for the same abuse. So it is worth understanding both routes before you choose.
Winston Solicitors are specialists in the scheme route and do not advise on civil claims. If you want to understand whether a civil claim would be right for you, you should take independent advice from a solicitor with civil litigation experience in clergy or institutional abuse cases. Our scheme versus civil claim page sets out how the two routes compare on speed, evidence, award range, and risk.
Stacey on what physical abuse survivors most often ask
“The thing I hear most often from people who were physically abused is some version of, it was just how things were back then,” says Stacey Flegg , Head of Church of England Redress Scheme at Winston Solicitors. “And I understand why, because so many of them were children when an adult they were meant to be safe with hurt them, and they were told it was discipline. But the scheme does not ask whether it was normal for the time. Rule 2 asks whether someone deliberately inflicted physical pain or injury, and that is a much simpler question. The other thing people do not always realise is that how the Church responded is part of the calculation too. If you reported what was happening and were not believed, or the Church knew an adult was a risk and left them in place, Rule 12 treats that as making the case more serious. You do not have to argue any of this from memory in front of a panel. A specialist solicitor prepares your account in writing, with you, at your pace. And a first conversation commits you to nothing.”
We work on the Church of England Redress Scheme across England and Wales and our team is fluent in the Rule 2 definitions, the Rule 12 aggravating factors, and the Schedule 1 assessment the redress body applies in practice.
Support that is Independent of Any Claim
Reading this page may have brought difficult things to the surface. If you want to talk to someone right now, separately from any decision about a claim, the following organisations are there for that. They are independent of Winston Solicitors and independent of the Church of England.
- Samaritans. Free, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Call 116 123 from any phone in the UK, or email jo@samaritans.org
- NAPAC, the National Association for People Abused in Childhood. Free support line for adult survivors of any form of childhood abuse, including physical abuse. Call 0808 801 0331 or visit napac.org.uk
- Safe Spaces. The Church of England and Catholic Church’s joint independent support service for survivors of church-related abuse. Confidential, and run independently of the Church’s own processes. Call 0300 303 1056 or visit safespacesenglandandwales.org.uk
You do not need to be considering an application to use any of these services. They are there because the harm matters, whether or not you ever take a legal step.
When You Are Ready
If you have used the calculator, or read this page, or both, and you want to talk it through, Stacey Flegg, Head of Church of England Redress Scheme at Winston Solicitors, will speak with you in your own time. The first conversation costs nothing, and there is no obligation to continue. You decide when, and you decide whether.
Winston Solicitors works with survivors of Church-related abuse from across England and Wales, with over 4,000 five-star reviews across the firm’s wider work. We focus specifically on the Church of England Redress Scheme route rather than general abuse litigation, which is why Stacey can give you an honest read on whether your situation fits Rule 2 and Section 3, in plain English, before you decide on anything.
The questions below are the ones survivors most often raise about physical abuse specifically. For broader questions on cost, time, evidence, and how the scheme compares to a civil claim, see our scheme FAQ hub.
Yes. The scheme covers physical abuse in any setting connected to the Church of England, including Church of England schools, Church-managed children’s homes and residential schools, choirs, Sunday schools, youth groups, and organised Church activities. The test is whether the person who carried out the abuse had authority to perform a role in the Church of England, and whether there was a close connection between that role and the abuse (Section 3, Abuse Redress Measure 2025). Winston Solicitors helps survivors from all of these settings, across England and Wales.
It can. What matters is whether someone deliberately caused you physical pain or injury, not what it was called at the time or whether it was common then. If you were hurt this way, it is worth a conversation, even if you have always thought of it as ordinary.
A single incident can count. The scheme looks at whether someone deliberately inflicted physical pain or injury, not at how many times it happened. How serious the abuse was is graded as part of the award under Schedule 1 of the Abuse Redress Rules 2025, but a one-off act of physical abuse is within the scope of the scheme.
You can still apply. There is no time limit on how long ago the abuse took place, and many survivors come to the scheme decades later. The scheme itself runs for a fixed period once it opens, so the limit is on when you apply, not on when the abuse happened. Our time limits page sets out the application window in full.
That is common, and the scheme is built for it. Physical abuse often happened alongside sexual, emotional, or spiritual abuse, and you can describe everything that happened to you in one application. Our sexual abuse page explains how the scheme defines that category, and the same one-application principle applies across all of them. Winston Solicitors can help you set out the full picture, across England and Wales.
You can still apply. The scheme looks at what happened to you and the Church’s responsibility for it, not at whether the person who carried out the abuse is alive to answer for it. The death of the abuser does not affect your eligibility under Section 3 of the Measure.
Yes. Many people read pages like this for someone they care about before that person is ready to. The scheme allows third parties to make initial enquiries. Winston Solicitors can talk you through how to support someone who may eventually want to apply, without putting any pressure on them.
