Monday, May 30, 2011

Guidelines may be put on statutory footing

A RANGE of professions could face sanctions for failing to report child welfare concerns under Government plans to put the Children First child protection guidelines on a statutory footing.

The move was announced by Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald after receiving the fourth report of the Government’s special rapporteur on child protection, Geoffrey Shannon.

The Children First guidelines, a 160-page document outlining child protection measures in a variety of contexts, were first published in 1999 but have never been made obligatory. One of the recommendations of the Ryan report into child sexual abuse by priests was that they be placed on a statutory footing.

Mr Shannon’s report, which was presented to the Cabinet, deals with the Children First guidelines and a range of other issues including youth homelessness, children and the criminal law, trafficking of children and prostitution.

Mr Shannon reiterated previous calls for a 24-hour out-of-hours social work service to address the needs of homeless children.

He also urged co-operation between different State agencies to ensure that the victims of child abuse were not questioned repeatedly and separately by the HSE and the Garda, as happens at present, and urged measures to address the welfare needs of young offenders.

“Mr Shannon’s report is stark reading and shows a number of problems in the child protection system in Ireland,” Ms Fitzgerald said. “Child protection has been very sadly neglected by previous governments.”

She said she was determined to redress past failings and would work in close consultation with Mr Shannon on the issues he raised.

A spokeswoman for the Minister said no policies had been prepared in the department to address such issues as how the guidelines would be made statutory, who would be bound by them and how compliance would be achieved. These were being prepared as a matter of urgency and would be published very shortly, with legislation drafted following consultation with interested parties and NGOs, she said.

Among the proposals in Mr Shannon’s report are to have co- operation between agencies interviewing victims of child sexual abuse and regulation of the disclosure of their confidential records during criminal trials.

The report finds that prosecutions are compromised and children traumatised by the fact 
that two sets of interviews take place in child abuse situations, one by the HSE and the other by the Garda.

He said disclosure of confidential medical and counselling records to the defence during criminal trials was leading to fewer cases being processed as victims feared their records would be revealed to the accused.

Mr Shannon recommended that disclosure orders should be based on evidence of the relevance of the records, along the lines outlined in a 2002 Northern Ireland case.

He said that children accused of crimes were usually already vulnerable because of poverty and family background. They should not be excluded from the remit of the proposed children’s rights amendment to the Constitution.

He recommended consideration of the Scottish system, which does not distinguish between troubled young people and young people in trouble. There, special Children’s Hearings existed for young people in trouble with the law, which decided on both welfare matters and measures to deal with offending behaviour, he said.

He also urged bail support schemes, which existed in other jurisdictions, as a way of reducing juvenile reoffending while on bail.

He echoes the proposals from the Immigrant Council of Ireland and others for criminal sanctions against the users of paid sexual services as a way of tackling child prostitution and child trafficking.

Mr Shannon is critical of recent legislation relating to begging as it applies to children, pointing out that children forced to beg are being abused.

Referring to children with mental health problems, he said there needed to be legislation to clarify the right of those over 16 to consent to medical intervention and detention in psychiatric institutions, which did not exist at present. 

The Mental Health Act 2001 should be amended to clarify the rights of children in the mental health system, he recommended.