As you may be aware, an Independent review was commissioned by St John Ambulance Ireland (SJAI) in March 2021 following on from historic allegations of abuse by a former volunteer of that organisation. The board of SJAI appointed Dr. Geoffrey Shannon to conduct that review. The Independent review report was published by the board of SJAI on March 16th 2023.
Officials in my Department had been liaising with SJAI both before the publication of the independent review report and have had ongoing engagement with SJAI since the publication of Dr. Shannon’s report. Of utmost concern to me has been the supports provided to survivors of abuse and ensuring that the comprehensive recommendations contained in Dr Shannon’s report are implemented.
In addition, my Department at assistant secretary general level, has met with Tusla’s senior management, including its Director of services and integration, to review the findings of Dr Shannon’s report and learnings arising from same. This meeting took place directly following the publication of the report. The following was agreed;
• It was agreed that Tusla and the DCEDIY would continue to work together to ensure the recommendations of the report are implemented.
• It was also agreed that Tusla and the DCEDIY will work together to review/develop the institutional/organisational abuse policies and procedures and oversight of issues including review of child safeguarding statement, and child protection polices where issues of allegations emerge/are reported to Tusla.
• Tusla advised it would set up a working group to look at developing a policy on institutional/ organisational abuse with my Department also represented on this work group.
• The working group had its’ first meeting on May 11th 2023 and its terms of reference includes;
Review the learnings arising from Dr Shannon’s independent review of SJAI
Develop policies and procedures and to develop and implement a plan to support same.
At the end of January 2024, the Working Group appointed a Research Company who will be jointly funded by my Department and Tusla, into the area of organisational and institutional abuse of children, including children placed in residential care settings.
This research will review international literature and best practice around same. It is intended that the commissioned research will also look at the findings, learnings and recommendations of seminal reports on abuse of children in residential care settings, including for example the Rotherham report into child sexual exploitation, the Rochdale enquiry in to child sexual exploitation.
The working group is also reviewing issues related to Dr Shannon’s report on response pathways and procedures to respond to any similar concerns which may arise in the future in respect to referrals related to organisations working with minors in the community or where children are placed in care placements. This will include a robust co-ordinated response pathway in respect of child safeguarding statements and policies where concerns are notified to Tusla.
The Organisational and Institutional Abuse Working Group has met on a number of occasions and will continue to meet in the months. Presently there is no specific timeframe available for the finalisation and publication of the Group's report, but this will become clearer as this work progresses. It is however expected that this work will be finalised by late Summer/ early Autumn.
