The Government has approved comprehensive and far-reaching guidelines for the reporting of child abuse by teachers, youth leaders, sporting organisations and professionals.
The guidelines, drawn up by a committee appointed by the Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey, were approved by the Cabinet on July 22nd and are to be published at the end of this month.
It is understood that the Cabinet has also agreed to consider introducing legislation to put the guidelines, entitled "Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children", on a statutory footing. That would make it a legal requirement on all health boards, government departments and organisations providing services to children to follow the guidelines.
The long-awaited recommendations were drawn up by a working group which will assist in the drafting of a White Paper on the controversial subject of mandatory reporting of child abuse. This is being prepared by the Department of Health, a spokesman said last night. It is understood the new guidelines run to eight chapters and, for the first time, place a huge emphasis on child welfare as well as physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect.
Social workers have been concerned that the emphasis on sexual abuse has reduced awareness of other forms of child abuse, such as neglect, and has overshadowed the question of child welfare.
"We felt it was very important to focus on child welfare, which is often forgotten amidst the horrors of physical and sex abuse," said a working group source.
The guidelines contain separate sections for teachers, doctors and other professionals who encounter instances of child abuse. They are thought to be so comprehensive that no professionals will be able to say that they did not know what to do on encountering suspected abuse.
The guidelines recommend that health boards should act immediately on reports of child abuse which provide reasonable grounds for suspicion. In a large appendix, various examples of cases with reasonable grounds for suspicion are outlined.
The Irish Times has learned that the working group has written to the Minister for Health asking that more training and resources be made available to health boards around the State to allow them to react more speedily to child abuse reports. The working group is also seeking training for all professionals, such as teachers, nurses, doctors and sports and youth leaders, to be provided by health boards or someone delegated by them.
The working group is also seeking special joint training of gardai and health board workers in how to cope with and respond to abuse allegations.
It is understood that the working group was divided on the issue of mandatory reporting. The source said that the members agreed eventually to put their differences on this issue aside in the drafting of the guidelines, and that the group is confident the guidelines will be valid whether mandatory reporting is introduced or not.
The working group was established by the Minister of State for Children, Mr Frank Fahey, in February 1998 to review guidelines issued by the Department of Health in 1987 and the guidelines concerning the notification of suspected cases of child abuse between health boards and gardai, issued in 1995.
The Fine Gael spokesman on health, Mr Alan Shatter, last night criticised the Government for waiting six weeks before publishing the new guidelines.
"These guidelines were agreed on July 22nd and are not to be published until the end of August. Given that it has taken this working group since February 1998 to come up with its guidelines, I do not see the need for a further six-week delay to allow time for a media package to be put together."
Mr Shatter also accused the Government of "kicking to touch" on mandatory reporting. "We have been promised this ever since they came into office but we are still waiting."
In its progress report at the end of its second year in office, published last week, the Government said the preparation of the White Paper was under way.
Mr Kieran McGrath, editor of the Irish Social Worker, welcomed news of the guidelines. He said the last guidelines, published in 1987, did not deal with abuse by carers or professionals, but mainly with abuse in family situations.
"There have been so many developments in this area throughout the 1990s, these guidelines are long overdue," he said.