The Government is to start work right away on drawing up a White Paper on mandatory reporting of child abuse in advance of introducing legislation, which it promised to deliver in its lifetime.
The Minister of State with special responsibility for children, Mr Frank Fahey, yesterday said the term "mandatory reporting" was being used "like a magic wand", but resources had to be put in place if it was to work.
"This involves putting reporting protocols and procedures in place for professions and making significant extra resources available so that health boards can respond expeditiously to reports of abuse. What I will not do is concentrate on the narrow focus of immediate legislative change where a simple prescriptive, over-legalistic approach would be counter-productive."
Though Cabinet agreed last week on the production of a White Paper, no deadline has been set for introducing a Bill on mandatory reporting. Mr Fahey said a child-care manager would be appointed in each health board area to co-ordinate the response to reported abuses. It emerged last week that hundreds of cases are not being dealt with for lengthy periods in the Eastern Health Board area because of lack of resources.
The Departments of Health, Justice and Education are to be involved in the new consultative group, which is being established to bring forward procedures and protocols for dealing with reports of child abuse.