Child Safeguarding
The Children First Act 2015 was enacted on 19th November 2015 and commenced in full on December 11th, 2017. The Act places several statutory obligations on specific groups of professionals and on organisations providing services to children.
Through the provisions of the Act, it is intended to:
- Raise awareness of child abuse and neglect,
- Provide for mandatory reporting by key professionals,
- Improve child safeguarding arrangements in organisations providing services to children,
- Provide for cooperation and information-sharing between agencies when Tusla – Child and Family Agency, is undertaking child protection.
It is imperative that all staff review the current Child Safeguarding Statement This is the written statement that specifies the services being provided to children and the principles and procedures to be observed to ensure, as far as practicable, that a child availing of the service is safe from harm.
In addition to the Child Safeguarding Statement, all UL members whose role involves working with children are requested and all other staff encouraged to undertake the Tusla Children First E-Learning programme. The E-Learning training programme is called ‘Introduction to Children First’. The programme has been written to support people of all backgrounds and experience in recognising concerns about children and reporting such concerns if they arise.
