Ireland · The law

The Children First Act 2015, plainly.

What the Children First Act 2015 asks of an organisation working with children, in the order it actually happens, without the guidance-document language.

The obligations

They build on each other.

Each one depends on the one before it, which is why organisations that start with training usually end up doing the work twice.

These are the obligations that fall on the organisation. Alongside them, the statement must be displayed where the service operates and furnished to anybody who asks, reviewed at least every twenty-four months, and produced to Tusla on request. Mandated persons carry separate duties of their own, set out below.

A written risk assessment

Every element of your service where there is a risk of harm to a child. Nothing else in the Children First Act 2015 can be answered until this exists.

A child safeguarding statement

The service, the principles observed, the risk assessment, and the procedures managing each risk it identifies. Displayed where you operate and given to anyone who asks.

The procedures themselves

Reporting, recruitment, vetting, online safety, mandated persons, training, and allegations against staff. Named in the statement and existing in fact.

A designated liaison person

Named in the statement as the first point of contact, and known to everyone.

Information and training

Information and, where necessary, instruction and training for staff and volunteers on identifying the occurrence of harm — appropriate to what your risk assessment found.

Display, furnish, review

Displayed where the service operates, given to anybody who asks, produced to Tusla on request, and reviewed at least every twenty-four months or sooner if the service changes materially.

Mandated persons

A personal obligation, not an organisational one.

Schedule 2 of the Children First Act 2015 names certain professionals as mandated persons — among them teachers, medical practitioners, social workers and youth workers. Where a concern reaches the threshold in the Children First Act 2015, they are legally obliged to report it to Tusla.

That obligation sits with the individual. It cannot be discharged by the designated liaison person on their behalf, and an organisation cannot absorb it into its own procedures. A mandated person who is also the designated liaison person holds both duties at once.

Know who they are

Maintain the list. It is one of the procedures the Children First Act 2015 expects.

They must know it too

People are frequently mandated persons without having been told.

Report, then record

To Tusla, and to An Garda Síochána where a criminal offence may have occurred.

Answers

The questions underneath the Children First Act 2015.

Who does the Children First Act 2015 apply to?

Providers of relevant services to children. That is broader than most organisations expect: crèches and preschools, schools, sports clubs, youth groups, dance and drama schools, hotels and leisure centres running children's activities, and organisations working with families.

What is a mandated person?

Certain professionals named in Schedule 2 of the Children First Act 2015 — including teachers, medical practitioners, social workers and youth workers — who are legally obliged to report child protection concerns above a defined threshold to Tusla. The obligation is personal and cannot be discharged by somebody else on their behalf.

What is the threshold for a mandated report?

Harm at or above the level defined in the Children First Act 2015. Below that threshold a concern may still be reported as a reasonable concern. If you are weighing it up, the safer course is to pass it on rather than to decide alone.

What is a designated liaison person?

The relevant person an organisation appoints as the first point of contact in respect of its child safeguarding statement, under the Children First Act 2015. They must be named in the statement, and everybody working with children needs to know who they are.

Does the Children First Act 2015 require training?

The child safeguarding statement must specify the procedures in place for providing information and, where necessary, instruction and training to staff and volunteers, in relation to identifying the occurrence of harm. It does not name a course or a duration. What is appropriate follows from the organisation's own written risk assessment.

How often must a safeguarding statement be reviewed?

At least every twenty-four months, or sooner if the service changes materially or an incident suggests the statement is not working.

What happens if we do not comply with the Children First Act 2015?

Tusla's Child Safeguarding Statement Compliance Unit can require an organisation to produce its statement, and a failure to provide one can be entered on Tusla's published register of non-compliance. The greater risk is usually not the register but what a failure to have working procedures allows to happen.

Who you would be working with

Fifteen years leading Ireland's national child protection unit.

Senior Investigating Officer with An Garda Síochána, leading three national units: the National Child Protection Unit, the Sexual Crime Management Unit and the Online Child Exploitation Unit. Ireland's National Expert to Interpol and Europol on child safeguarding.

Safeguarding policy developed with Tusla, the HSE and three government departments. M.Sc. in Child Protection and Welfare, Trinity College Dublin. More about Michael

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