Chapter 7 — Recommendations

(ii) To prevent where possible and reduce the incidence of abuse of children in institutions and to protect children from such abuse

Management at all levels should be accountable for the quality of services and care. Performance should be assessed by the quality of care delivered. The manager of an institution should be responsible for: Making the best use of the available resources Vetting of staff and volunteers Ensuring that staff are well trained, matched to the nature of the work to be undertaken and progressively trained so as to be kept up to date Ensuring on-going supervision, support and advice for all staff Regularly reviewing the system to identify problem areas for both staff and children Ensuring rules and regulations are adhered to Establishing whether system failures caused or contributed to instances of abuse Putting procedures in place to enable staff and others to make complaints and raise matters of concern without fear of adverse consequences.

Children in care should be able to communicate concerns without fear. Children in care are often isolated with their concerns, without an adult to whom they can talk. Children communicate best when they feel they have a protective figure in whom they can confide. The Department of Health and Children must examine international best practice to establish the most appropriate method of giving effect to this recommendation.

Childcare services depend on good communication. Every childcare facility depends for its efficient functioning on good communication between all the departments and agencies responsible. It requires more than meetings and case conferences. It should involve professionals and others communicating concerns and suspicions so that they can act in the best interests of the child. Overall responsibility for this process should rest with a designated official.

Children in care need a consistent care figure. Continuity of care should be an objective wherever possible. Children in care should have a consistent professional figure with overall responsibility. The supervising social worker should have a detailed care plan the implementation of which should be regularly reviewed, and there should be the power to direct that changes be made to ensure standards are met. The child, and where possible the family, should be involved in developing and reviewing the care plan.

Children who have been in State care should have access to support services. Aftercare services should be provided to give young adults a support structure they can rely on. In a similar way to families, childcare services should continue contact with young people after they have left care as minors.

Children who have been in childcare facilities are in a good position to identify failings and deficiencies in the system, and should be consulted. Continued contact makes it possible to evaluate whether the needs of children are being met and to identify positive and negative aspects of experience of care.

Children in care should not, save in exceptional circumstances, be cut off from their families. Priority should be given to supporting ongoing contact with family members for the benefit of the child.

The full personal records of children in care must be maintained. Reports, files and records essential to validate the child’s identity and their social, family and educational history must be retained. These records need to be kept secure and up to date. Details should be kept of all children who go missing from care. The privacy of such records must be respected.

‘Children First: The National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children’ should be uniformly and consistently implemented throughout the State in dealing with allegations of abuse.