Sir, – I have been following with interest the response from the Health Service Executive (HSE) regarding the recent reports around incidences of the mistreatment of Irish children.
Its rhetoric places great weight on its commitment to righting the wrongs of the past and to ensuring the future safety of Irish children is preserved through its work with the Children First Act and the Child and Family Agency (Tusla).
I am a current HSE employee, who as part of my job is regularly responsible for the care of sick and vulnerable children.
As such, I recently completed the mandatory HSE Children First training, which now takes the form of a 1½-hour online course. It seems strange to me that in the last five years, despite all the revelations, and all the posturing, this training has been gradually reduced from a two-day course (in 2012), to a one-day course (in 2014), to a now paltry 1½ hours of online training.
I would be interested to see how this equates to the HSE’s stance on improving child safety. – Yours, etc,
Dr RORY STEWART,
Falcarragh,
Co Donegal.