No.

There does not need to have been a police report, a charge, or a conviction. The scheme decides applications on the balance of probability (meaning more likely than not), which is a much lower bar than a criminal court uses.

You can apply on your own, but many survivors prefer to have a specialist alongside them. Winston Solicitors are a specialist scheme practice, fluent in the Abuse Redress Rules 2026 and the assessment the redress body applies, and your first conversation with us is always free.

No.

You apply directly to the Church using the form on its website, there is no legal test to prepare for, and no fee to pay If you later want help with the Redress Scheme itself, that is the point at which Winston Solicitors comes in, for survivors across England and Wales.

No. Approximate periods, descriptions of places, and partial names are normal in applications about events from many years ago. Your solicitor helps you anchor what you do remember against records such as school years, clergy appointments, or family addresses, so precision the memory cannot supply can come from elsewhere.

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.

No. Whatever figure the redress body decides under the five-step Schedule 1 calculation, you receive in full. Winston Solicitors does not take anything off the award. There is no separate bill at the end.

No. Winston Solicitors’ professional duty is to you, regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The firm will challenge the Church on your behalf and push back on offers that undervalue your claim under Schedule 1. If you want to explore whether a civil claim might be right for you, Winston Solicitors does not advise on civil claims against the Church.

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.

There are no dates in the Scheme. It does not matter how long ago the abuse took place to be able to claim.

The Scheme will consider abuse which took place within the UK. It will also consider abuse directly related to the Church of England, that took place outside the UK, such as when a Church mission was operating abroad.

The definition in Rule 2(4) centres on a deliberate and systematic pattern, so a sustained course of conduct sits at its core. The rule’s use of “includes” means the list is not closed, and a single serious incident may fall within another of the scheme’s categories instead. If you are not sure where what happened to you fits, Winston Solicitors can tell you honestly in one conversation.

Yes. Preparing an application does take some time, and for many survivors it can also be emotionally difficult to revisit what happened.

You will usually need to tell your story, think about the impact the abuse has had on your life, and help identify any records or other evidence that may support your application. However, you are not expected to do all of this on your own.

Yes. The scheme can apply to abuse connected with a wide range of Church settings, including churches, Church of England schools, choirs, Sunday schools, youth groups, residential homes and other organised Church activities.

The key question is whether the abuse was closely connected to the person's role within the Church.

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.

Yes,

where the Section 3 conditions are met. A religious context is not limited to services in a church building, and Church schools, camps, choirs, and youth groups are exactly the settings where spiritual authority was often exercised over children. Winston Solicitors advises survivors from all of these settings, across England and Wales.

The scheme will set its own application window once it opens, and Winston Solicitors will publish the dates as soon as they are confirmed. There is no time limit on the scheme based on when the abuse took place. Civil claims usually have a limitation period that runs from your eighteenth birthday or a date of knowledge, with a court discretion that can apply in abuse cases. The civil limitation position is fact-specific, and only a specialist civil claims solicitor can advise whether it affects your case.

Yes, the Scheme includes provision for legal fees. You can use a lawyer for advice and support to make your claim and nothing will be deducted from your compensation.

No.

Winston Solicitors does not take any percentage of your award. Our fees are paid separately by the Archbishops’ Council, on a track that does not touch your compensation. The phrase “no win no fee” is the wrong description of how the scheme works. “You pay nothing, whatever the outcome” is closer to the truth.

Winston Solicitors also tracks every stage on our Redress Scheme hub, wherever in the UK or abroad you are reading from.

Register your interest

Alternatively, you can register at redresscofe.org, the notification service run by Kennedys, the independent law firm appointed to administer the Redress Scheme. The Church has said email addresses registered there are not shared with the Church.

The most useful next step is usually two conversations, in this order: a free conversation with Winston Solicitors about the scheme route, and a separate conversation with an independent specialist civil claims solicitor about the civil route. Two views, no pressure, then you decide. You can also walk through the Church of England Redress Scheme compensation calculator privately first. It asks for no contact details, keeps no record, and runs entirely in your browser.

The scheme decides on the balance of probability, meaning more likely than not, and it is built to work with the kinds of record this abuse actually leaves. GP or counselling notes, school or parish records, letters or diaries from the time, and statements from anyone you told can all help, and having none of them does not stop you applying. Our evidence page explains what helps and how it is gathered.

Under a civil claim, the solicitor’s fees and other costs usually come out of your settlement before the rest reaches you. Under the redress scheme, your solicitor’s fees are paid separately by the Archbishops’ Council and your award reaches you in full. The wider comparison between the two routes, with the independent specialist signpost for the civil route, is at scheme versus civil claim.

A traditional no-win-no-fee deal, a conditional fee agreement or CFA, means the solicitor takes nothing if you lose and an agreed slice of your award if you win. Under the Church of England Redress Scheme there is no CFA. The Archbishops’ Council pays the lawyers’ fees separately, whatever the outcome, under Section 23 of the Abuse Redress Measure. You pay nothing either way, and the full award reaches you when the claim succeeds.

The Church of England Redress Scheme runs for five years from the day it opens, under Section 7(2) of the Abuse Redress Measure 2025. The General Synod can extend that period. The real deadline for new applications falls earlier, at the start of the final nine months, under Rule 4 of the Abuse Redress Rules 2025.