I thank the Chairman and committee members for the opportunity to meet to address this issue. These are the heads of a Bill, drafted for the purpose of submission to this committee, which occurred at the earliest opportunity for the purpose of consultation before finalising the heads of the legislation. We are at a very early stage in the process.
The purpose of child protection policy and legislation is to protect children from abuse and neglect. The aim of the Minister in advancing this legislation is to strengthen the protections already in place and to ensure that, regardless of the setting, there is no doubt as to what to do or who to go to if there is a concern regarding the welfare or protection of a child. Key to the delivery of this policy is ensuring that not only professionals working with children but society in general is aware of the possibility of abuse and neglect of children and the reporting procedures available where concerns are identified.
Child abuse takes place in a variety of settings and international research indicates that most child neglect and physical abuse takes place in the home. Abuse also takes place in other settings, such as school and in recreational activity. Ireland is no different than many jurisdictions as regards the patterns or prevalence of abuse and neglect of children. Recent data on reporting show over 29,000 reports made annually regarding child welfare and protection. Of these, more than 16,000 related to welfare concerns and around 13,000 related to protection concerns. It is worth noting and emphasising that many of these reports were made based on the existing Children First guidance.
The Children First guidelines were first published in 1999. Since then, they have operated as the over-arching national guidelines for all individuals and agencies that come into contact with children. The aim of Children First is to give direction to the identification, investigation, assessment, reporting, treatment and management of child abuse. The guidelines specifically highlight the roles and responsibilities of the HSE and the Garda Síochána as the two agencies with statutory responsibility for child protection. The guidelines are also intended to help organisations to ensure children under their care are safe, staff and volunteers can identify possible abuse within the organisation or elsewhere, and the appropriate structure for reporting to relevant statutory bodies is in place.
A number of reviews of Children First, including reviews undertaken by the then Office of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Office of the Ombudsman for Children, identified that while there were no fundamental issues with the guidelines themselves, there were issues with their consistent implementation. In this context, it was decided to revise the guidelines to reflect the findings of the various reviews and a number of reports into child protection issues generally and to reflect the changed environment for the delivery of services, particularly following the establishment of the HSE.
The key message of the revised Children First guidance is that the safety and welfare of children is everyone's responsibility. Children will have safer lives if everyone is attentive to their well-being and if those who work with children across a range of areas understand their personal responsibility for safe practices and reporting concerns. The revised guidance was published by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs in 2010, along with a companion child protection and welfare practice handbook which is generally aimed at professionals working in the area of child protection and welfare.
The publication of the revised guidance was followed by the publication of specific sectoral guidance. Given the important role of the education sector, it is worth noting particular developments in that sector. In September 2011, the Department of Education and Skills published updated child protection procedures for primary and post-primary schools based on the updated Children First guidance. This was done following a consultation process with all the relevant stakeholders in the education sector, the HSE and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. The updated procedures incorporate significant improvements to the previous school guidelines, including strengthening of the local oversight arrangements, all of which are intended to better ensure consistent and uniform implementation of Children First across all schools.
The updated procedures recognise that child protection and welfare considerations permeate all aspects of school life and should be reflected in all school policies, practices and activities. The procedures specifically require a school's child protection policy to confirm all school policies, practices and activities will adhere to certain principles of best practice in child protection and welfare. The feedback from schools on the updated child protection procedures has been very positive. I understand the committee will hear from our colleagues in the Irish Sports Council later in the week. They have taken a strong lead in developments to support the implementation of Children First within the sports sector since the introduction of Children First in 1999. They have also taken measures to embed further the revised guidance published last year. I will some more about some of the other areas in due course
To address issues around the consistent implementation of the revised guidance, the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, has committed to the establishment of an interdepartmental committee, chaired by her Department, to monitor the implementation of the guidance. There is a need for each sector to have appropriate systems of support and assurance in place to ensure the guidance is being implemented in practice by organisations in that sector which are involved with children. Therefore, the support of individual Departments is key to promoting greater awareness of Children First and consistent implementation of the provisions of the guidance across sectors.
The work of the interdepartmental group has focused initially on identifying the structures in place across Departments and their agencies to facilitate the safeguarding and protection of children, having regard to the provisions of Children First. Each Department has identified the agencies operating in its sector which will be covered by Children First and has described the existing structures in place in this regard which may be of use in progressing consistent implementation of the guidance. This phase of the work has been largely completed. The next phase requires the preparation of a Children First implementation plan in each sector, setting out the mechanisms in place or to be put in place to support the guidance at sectoral level. This work is now beginning in Departments.
Notwithstanding these developments, there has been a commitment to further strengthen the place of the policy by giving explicit statutory expression to key elements of the guidance. The commitment to legislate for the Children First national guidance for the welfare and protection of children has its genesis in the implementation plan that was prepared following the publication of the report of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse in 2009. Action 85 of the implementation plan provided, inter alia, that legislation would be drafted to provide that all staff employed by the State and in agencies in receipt of funding from the Exchequer would have a duty to comply with Children First. The implementation plan also provided that a revised edition of Children First itself would be published.
In this context, the Government recently published the draft heads and general scheme for the Children First Bill 2012. As the members of the committee are aware, the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences Against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Bill 2012 was also published recently. The Minister for Justice and Equality is preparing legislation to provide that people working with children will be legally required to be vetted. When taken together, the suite of new legislation will serve to strengthen significantly the legislative base on which child welfare and protection services in Ireland are delivered.
The objectives of the policy of providing a statutory basis to underpin Children First are to provide an improved and safer environment for children within organisations, to underpin the guidance regarding safe practices within organisations and in respect of the reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect, to provide for appropriate structures for the reporting of child abuse regardless of where it occurs, and to provide for improvement of the management of child safety concerns. To emphasise that everyone has a responsibility to report child welfare and protection concerns to the HSE, the proposed legislation will make it clear nothing in the Children First Bill shall preclude a person from his or her existing obligations under the Children First national guidelines.
I wish to go through the main provisions of the Bill. I understand copies of the heads of the Bill have been circulated. I will skip over some of the more administrative heads to discuss the more relevant ones. Head 5 provides that the welfare and protection of the child is to be the first and paramount concern. This head covers the policy intention, which is that obligations arising under Children First are to operate in conjunction with the proposed Bill. A further objective of this head is to confirm and affirm that the principles and guidelines set out in Children First remain operative and are to be implemented in conjunction with the Bill's provisions. In particular, it is intended that this head would ensure the reporting principles and guidelines set out in Children First would continue to apply.
Head 6 provides for those organisations coming within the meaning of the Bill that will have a statutory obligation to report a concern or allegation of child abuse to the HSE. This head lists the types of services provided by those organisations as services where children would attend, including services under Part VII of the Child Care Act 1991, recreational, educational, cultural, religious, spiritual or charitable pursuits, health care, therapeutic or disability services, services with a residential component and transport services provided specifically for children. State, community, voluntary and private services for children are included in the head.
Head 6 also lists services which are excluded from the meaning of the Bill, including those which have general public access, such as shops and cinemas; services provided to a child by a person directly employed by the child's parent or guardian; services provided by a person employed in the child's own home; services provided by an organisation which employs children, such as an organisation employing apprentices, unless it is an organisation included under the legislation; and services provided by gyms, beauty and leisure facilities which cater for adults but allow children to use their facilities. The principle of a parent providing the best protection for his or her child, and in so doing supervising the service his or her child receives, underpins these exclusions.
Head 7 provides for the responsibilities of organisations which come under the Bill, including the appointment of a designated officer, the publication of the Keeping Children Safe plan and, in general, the promotion of awareness of best practice in child welfare and protection. Head 7 provides that an organisation coming under the legislation is one that provides services which may be attended by a child, without the attendance of that child's parent or guardian or other adult to whom the parent or guardian has entrusted the child, and where a person working in the organisation has access to a child or works directly with a child availing of the organisation's service.
Head 8 provides for the arrangements for an organisation which comes under the Bill to notify the HSE of its existence, the service to be provided by it to children, and sets out details of information an organisation is required to hold and make available to the HSE on request.
Head 9 provides that an organisation which comes under head 6 must appoint a designated officer who is to be the most senior person in the organisation. The head provides for the functions of the designated officer, which include receiving from employees or volunteers concerns or allegations of child abuse and reporting any such concerns to the HSE. In doing so, the designated officer must act in accordance with the guidance for the reporting of abuse provided for under head 15. It is intended that concerns or allegations of child abuse will relate to abuse a child may have encountered while in the organisation and also to abuse which may have happened in other circumstances outside the organisation but where the information has come to the employee's or volunteer's attention while involved in the work of the organisation. The designated officer's functions may be delegated to one or more employees or volunteers of senior management rank with the authority and competence to undertake the role. It is intended, however, that the designated officer would remain the person responsible for ensuring cases of child abuse or neglect are reported and compliance generally with the proposed legislation. If the designated officer decides not to report a concern or allegation of child abuse which has been brought to his or her attention, he or she must record, at the time of making the decision not to report, the reasons for not reporting and any action he or she takes in relation to the case.
Head 9 also emphasises the wider role of the designated officer in ensuring the implementation of the Keeping Children Safe plan for the organisation. These are wider safeguarding duties related to recruitment, vetting, training and other internal processes for good safe practice within organisations. It also provides for the designated officer to assist the Health Service Executive and participate, on request, in the assessment of risk, the investigation of concerns or allegations of child abuse undertaken by the HSE and any related matter.
Head 10 provides for the duties of employees or volunteers working in organisations to report concerns and allegations of child abuse to the designated officer in accordance with criteria set out in the Keeping Children Safe plan. It also provides for concerns or allegations of abuse to be reported directly to the HSE by employees or volunteers rather than to the designated officer if to do so would be in the child's best interest.
Head 11 sets out that certain persons and professionals are to be statutorily required to report to the designated officer concerns or allegations of child abuse if working in an organisation coming under the proposed legislation. The designated officer is to be statutorily required to report any such concerns or allegations of abuse to the HSE. The reporting of concerns or allegations of abuse is to be made in accordance with criteria and the head sets out that persons or professionals who work outside of such organisations and are sole practitioners or self-employed are to be statutorily required to report concerns and allegations of abuse to the HSE. Head 11 provides that persons who are statutorily required to report and who fail, without reasonable excuse, to comply are guilty of an offence and the liabilities arising are set out in head 20.
Head 12 sets out the HSE's responsibilities under the Bill to promote awareness and best practice in the area of child welfare and protection for organisations and persons coming under the Bill. It also provides for the HSE to examine organisations when non-compliance with the Bill is brought to its attention.
Head 13 sets out the responsibilities of the HSE in relation to monitoring and dealing with reports of concerns or allegations of abuse it receives. The Child Care Act 1991 provides that the HSE shall take such steps as it considers requisite to identify children who are not receiving adequate care and protection and ensure any reported cases of abuse received are assessed.
Head 14 provides for the HSE to have the power to examine whether an organisation is complying with the provisions of the Bill and to determine whether there is or may be a failure on the part of the organisation to implement the legislation. While I do not propose to discuss this issue in detail, the HSE has available to it an escalating series of opportunities to issue a range of improvement notices. It also has options to apply to the District Court for a prohibition notice to have services suspended or to ask an organisation to cease providing such services if they are not safe.
Head 15 provides for the Department of Children and Youth Affairs to publish guidance entitled Guidance for the Reporting of Abuse. The guidance will provide advice on all aspects of the reporting of concerns and allegations of child abuse by persons statutorily charged with reporting child abuse, and it will be provided to all relevant organisations and made available to the public.
Head 16 provides for criteria to be used by a designated officer or person statutorily required to report child abuse in deciding if he or she should make a report on a concern or allegation of child abuse to the HSE. While the report must be made to the HSE, if the case has been reported to the Garda Síochána, there is no requirement to report to the HSE. This measure is to avoid reporting to both the HSE and Garda Síochána unless that is what is required in the circumstances. The head also provides for reports to be made by the Garda Síochána in respect of relevant reports it receives of child abuse or concerns for the safety of a child.
Head 17 provides for the HSE to inform a designated officer or any person statutorily charged with reporting child abuse, who has made a report of a concern or allegation of child abuse to the HSE, if the report is being referred for attention by the HSE to the Garda Síochána. Head 17 provides that the HSE and Garda Síochána will co-operate to ensure the best interests of the child are upheld and provides that the HSE and Garda Síochána will agree protocols and procedures for the implementation of this head.
Head 18 provides for the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003 to apply to data collected, processed, kept and used in accordance with the Bill but that the Data Protection Acts are not to prevent the exchange of information under this Bill which is exchanged for the purpose of protecting a child.
Head 19 provides that the Minister for Education and Skills, the Minister for Health, the Minister for Justice and Equality, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Gaeltacht Affairs, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Minister for Social Protection and the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport are to provide, at the request of the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, information on the implementation of the proposed legislation by their Departments and in respect of agencies under their remit.
Head 20 provides for offences under the Bill and the liabilities attaching. A person is guilty of an offence if he or she is required to report concerns or allegations of abuse under the proposed Bill to the HSE and fails to do so. A person guilty of an offence will be liable, on summary conviction, to a class A fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or both, or on conviction on indictment, to a fine or imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years or both.
This legislation is a key priority of the Government. The Minister is, however, especially mindful of the complexity of the issue. The societal shift being sought in ensuring greater public awareness of the risks of abuse and neglect and a more clearly articulated and widely shared responsibility to report abuse to secure the protection of all children presents particular challenges in framing this legislation.
Giving statutory effect to key elements in the existing Children First national guidance is an important step. It is also one, however, which will bring with it a level of concern across stakeholders as to the impact of the legislation on their day-to-day work and practice as well as on their volunteering activities. For this reason, the Minister has selected to provide the heads of Bill to the committee as early as possible as part of the vital process of early consultation on legislation which will have such a wide reach. In this context, I stress that the Children First legislation is at heads of Bill stage. The Minister is of the view it is beneficial to have the legislation examined by this committee at an early stage to assist in identifying specific areas which will require examination as the process continues. Following the committee's consideration and further inputs from departmental colleagues, the heads will be finalised for the purposes of drafting of the Bill.
A number of issues are worth specific mention as they present particular challenges. These include the roles to be played under the legislation by organisations and designated persons within organisations. In this regard, further detailed consultations are ongoing to ensure clarity and to emphasise properly the most appropriate focal point for responsibilities under the legislation. The challenge is to ensure appropriate accountability at designated person or named professional level and at corporate level, while balancing this in the context of a wide range of organisations and individuals potentially covered by the legislation. In this context, it is critical to note the legislation is an adjunct to existing responsibilities contained in the Children First national guidance.
The purpose of the legislation is, in part, to give stronger statutory emphasis to the responsibilities on designated persons, professionals and organisations corporately to ensure there is no ambivalence or ambiguity regarding the importance of safeguarding and reporting responsibilities. It is acknowledged that central to these provisions will be the guidance for the reporting of abuse to be published by the Department which will provide advice to designated persons and organisations as to the criteria that should be applied in assessing concerns brought to their attention. The Department is working on this guidance and it is acknowledged this guidance, alongside training, will be important to persons having the confidence and competence to perform the role of a designated person effectively.
In addition, the Keeping Children Safe plan, the guidance for reporting of abuse and the safeguarding guidance for organisations, which are all documents referenced in the heads but not yet published, will need to be assessed to determine their potential impacts for the various sectors. The Department is committed to consulting other Departments and relevant parties in seeking to resolve these and other issues as they arise.
It is worth referring to the role that will be undertaken by child and family services within the HSE and in the new child and family support agency. I am joined by colleagues from the Health Service Executive who will be pleased to take specific questions.
Providing consistency of practice within the HSE has been the first starting point in respect of the new Children First guidance. The launch of Children First in 2011 was accompanied by the HSE child protection and welfare practice handbook which provides clarity for all social work services and organisations. I have some additional copies of the handbook with me if members wish to have a copy. The HSE acknowledges it is important parents who seek help can access services and take the lead responsibility. It is the desire of the HSE that this change will produce better outcomes for children and families, deliver greater transparency and accountability for the organisation and instil greater public confidence.
In terms of specific responsibilities set out in the draft heads of Bill, under head 12, the Health Service Executive will promote awareness and publish best practice guidance entitled Safeguarding Guidance for Organisations. This document will replace the existing support document entitled Our Duty to Care, which has been utilised by many voluntary and community organisations since its creation in 2002 to support the Children First document of 1999. HSE personnel have assisted and supported organisations since that time. The new safeguarding guidance document with dedicated personnel will support and assist all designated officers in organisations who are required to develop and implement a Keeping Children Safe plan.
In head 13, the Bill lays out the clear responsibilities of the HSE to ensure effective management of all reports and concerns. There is a requirement to appoint a person who will be responsible for monitoring and dealing with reports and allegations. The HSE children and family services have restructured its services from 32 community care areas to 17 children and family areas. Each area is managed by an area manager who has full accountability. Each area manager reports directly to a regional service director who reports to Gordon Jeyes, national director, who is the chief executive designate of the new child and family support agency.
The new agency will prioritise children in care and protection of children at significant risk. As the shadow agency is developed there is a clear focus on the new agency's role and the relationship with key partner agencies in the voluntary and community sector. Work on the development of the new agency is advancing well with the assistance of the task force on the establishment of the child and family support agency. There is a clear understanding of the need to construct an organisation which has the capacity and competence to support and protect children and their families. Its organisational structure, governance arrangements and statutory powers and responsibilities must be such that it is responsive to and adaptable to the changing pressures for families in modern Irish society. At its core it must also be equipped and organised to protect children. Work is also ongoing on a new model of service delivery. The intentions to ensure readily accessible services with a dedicated intake team to assess risk and make consistent decisions on the need for and type of interventions children and their families may need. There will be a strong emphasis on prevention and early intervention through family support and a richer but structured input of community and voluntary inputs which all support families in their parenting responsibilities. In this regard, the agency will include in its scope of services family support as provided by the existing Family Support Agency which will be subsumed within its remit.
The Children First Bill is one part of a suite of legislation to strengthen child protection. Of particular relevance is the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information) Bill published in recent weeks. That legislation places a responsibility to provide information to the Garda where a person has knowledge of a serious sexual offence against a child as part of the investigation and prosecution of that crime.
The Children First Bill is concerned with the protection of children - this is the key policy imperative. Reports under Children First are to the Health Service Executive, or its successor, not to the Garda. The purpose of reports is threefold: to protect an individual child; to assess that child's needs; and to assess any risk to any other children in a family or community. It aims to make organisations where children spend their time safe places for children. It is intended to ensure that key designated persons in those organisations, and named professionals, are clear on their role and are supported in protecting children from risks within organisations as well as in the wider community.
Although the two pieces of legislation are closely related they are complementary. We have been working closely with our colleagues in the Department of Justice and Equality to ensure that continues to be the case as both pieces of legislation proceed through the legislative process.
The Minister is aware that some of the complex issues raised in these heads may inform and anticipate some of the issues that may arise in the debate in respect of the children's referendum to be advanced later in the year. An early understand of views on some of these complex issues will be helpful. In addition, clear progress on the strengthening of the legal framework for the protection of children will be an important context for the referendum.
I thank the committee for its time. I emphasise that the legislation as proposed builds on more than ten years of practice and training in respect of a national approach to the safeguarding of children in Children First. For many professionals and employees working in children's services what is proposed will reflect current practice and existing requirements of the national policy guidance. The legislation will copperfasten these requirements. I hope the foregoing has been helpful. My colleagues and I will take any questions which may arise from my statement or on any other matter relating to the draft heads of the Bill.
