Guides · Ireland
Children First, in plain words.
What the Children First Act 2015 asks of an organisation working with children, written the way Michael would explain it on the telephone. Free to read, nothing to fill in.
The Children First Act 2015 explained
The five obligations, mandated persons, and the order they have to happen in
The written risk assessment
What it must cover, who should carry it out, and why a template cannot do it
What a safeguarding statement must contain
The four requirements, the display obligation, and the twenty-four-month review
The designated liaison person
The role, who should hold it, and what happens when the concern is about them
Garda vetting policy
Who must be vetted, what your policy needs to say, and what vetting does not do
Is Tusla's free e-learning enough?
What the Children First Act 2015 asks for beyond training, and what your risk assessment decides
Reporting a child protection concern
What to do when you are worried about a child, and why you do not need to be sure
Mandated persons
Who they are, the threshold, and why the duty cannot be handed to somebody else
Safeguarding for crèches and preschools
Where early learning services get caught, and the risks specific to your rooms
Safeguarding for sports clubs
Why a governing body policy is a starting point rather than an answer
Safeguarding in schools
How the Children First Act 2015 and the Department procedures fit together, and where the gaps are
If you read only one
Start with the risk assessment.
Every other obligation in the Children First Act 2015 depends on it, and it is the one most often missing. Organisations that start anywhere else usually end up doing the work twice.
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
do what you love, safely
Organisations Michael has worked with
Tusla
HSE
United Nations
Interpol
European Commission
GAA
Scouting Ireland
Teaching Council
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
CARI
Irish Red Cross
DSPCA
St John Ambulance
UCD
Trinity College Dublin
ERA — Academy of European LawThe first conversation
Thirty minutes. No cost.
If a guide raises a question about your own organisation, half an hour usually settles it. Michael will tell you what you actually need, including if that is nothing.
- Whether the Children First Act 2015 applies to you
- Which obligations you already meet
- What it would cost to close any gap, and what it would not