Garter Lane. Photo: Derek Speirs.
Following the enactment of the Children First Act 2015 and publication of the revised Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare 2017, the Arts Council is continuing to support the arts sector in the promotion of best practice in child protection and welfare.
All arts organisations, groups and individual artists working with children have a responsibility to protect children from harm and contribute to their safety and well-being, in accordance with legislation and national guidance.
The Arts Council promotes the key principles that inform best practice in child protection and welfare, and acknowledges the rights of children to be protected from harm, treated with respect, listened to, and have their views taken into consideration; recognising that the safety and welfare of children is everyone’s responsibility and the best interests of the child should be paramount.
Child protection and welfare national policy is based on a legal framework provided primarily by the Children Act 1991 and the Children First Act 2015. The policy and practice that applies in this area is outlined in Children First, National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children.
Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children was first published in 1999 and revised in 2011, and 2017. The need to revise the National Guidance and current edition came about because of the enactment of the Children First Act 2015. This act places a number of statutory obligations on specific groups of professionals and on particular organisations providing services to children.
Many arts organisations provide ‘relevant services’ as defined in the Children First Act 2015, Schedule 1 and therefore have specific statutory obligations under the Act.
Child protection and welfare is based on a legal framework provided primarily by the Children Act 1991 and the Children First Act 2015. The policy and practice that applies in this area is outlined in Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017.
Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children was first published in 1999 and revised in 2011, and 2017. The need to revise the National Guidance and current edition came about because of the enactment of the Children First Act 2015. This act places a number of statutory obligations on specific groups of professionals and on particular organisations providing services to children.
Many arts organisations provide ‘relevant services’ as defined in the Children First Act 2015, Schedule 1 and therefore have specific statutory obligations under the Act. One of the main objectives of the Children First Act 2015 is to ensure that your organisation keeps children safe from harm while availing of your service. This responsibility includes keeping children safe from harm online. The legislation and this associated guidance relate to the obligations of relevant services to prevent, as far as practicable, deliberate harm or abuse to the children availing of their services. While it is not possible to remove all risk, your organisation should put in place policies and procedures to manage and reduce risk to the greatest possible extent.
The Children First Act places specific obligations on organisations which provide services to children and young people, including the requirement to:
- Keep children safe from harm while they are using your service.
- Carry out a risk assessment to identify whether a child or young person could be harmed while receiving your services.
- Develop a Child Safeguarding Statement that outlines the policies and procedures which are in place to manage the risks that have been identified.
- Appoint a relevant person to be the first point of contact in respect of your organisation’s Child Safeguarding Statement.
The legislation imposes deadlines on organisations in both carrying out a risk assessment and preparing a Child Safeguarding Statement. Organisations were required to complete a risk assessment and Child Safeguarding Statement within three months of the relevant sections of the Children First Act 2015 coming into force, which was 11 December 2017. For newer services, organisations must comply with the requirements within three months from the date their services commenced.
The Children First Act, in section 11(4), requires providers of relevant services to have due regard to any guidelines issued by Tusla - Child and Family Agency concerning child safeguarding statements. Any guidance issued by Tusla concerning Child Safeguarding Statements may be found on its website (www.tusla.ie).
Every organisation or individual artist providing services to children should ensure that they have policies and procedures in place which protect children from harm. It is the responsibility of organisations to ensure that all staff members and volunteers have good quality information to enable them to recognise and report child protection and welfare concerns. If you are an adult working on your own to provide a service to children, you should ensure that your procedures follow best practice in child protection.
It is a condition of financial assistance from the Arts Council that those in receipt of funding or grant-aid whose work brings them into contact with children meet their obligations with regard to national legislation, and have policies and procedures in place to create a safe environment for children and young people availing of services.
If your organisation provides a relevant service, as listed in Schedule 1 of the Children First Act 2015, this will be achieved by preparing and implementing your Child Safeguarding Statement. Guidance on developing a Child Safeguarding Statement is available here
All organisations that provide services to children and families should develop specific policies and procedures to keep children and young people using their services safe from harm. A best practice guide for all providers to develop safeguarding procedures is available here. (PDF, 1.11 MB)
Statutory obligations on employers in relation to Garda vetting requirements for persons working with children and vulnerable adults are set out in the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012–2016.
These Acts, provide a legislative basis for the mandatory vetting of persons who wish to undertake certain work or activities relating to children or vulnerable persons, or to provide certain services to children or vulnerable persons. The Acts create offences and penalties for persons who fail to comply with its provisions. Arts organisations, groups, and individual artists should ensure that they fully comply with all the requirements of this legislation.
The National Vetting Bureau of An Garda Síochána issues vetting disclosures to organisations employing people who work in a full-time, part-time, voluntary or student placement basis with children and/or vulnerable adults. The National Vetting Bureau does not decide on the suitability of any person to work with children and vulnerable adults. Rather, in response to a written request for vetting, the National Vetting Bureau releases criminal history and other specified information on the person to be vetted to the prospective recruiting organisation.
Decisions on suitability for recruitment rests at all times with the recruiting organisation and the results of vetting should form only one part of your organisations recruitment decision.
Information on Garda Vetting can be found at the following link vetting.garda.ie
It is the responsibility of your organisation to identify what training your staff and volunteers need and to ensure that they receive adequate and appropriate child protection and welfare information and training. Your organisation should provide all staff members and volunteers with good-quality information on the recognition and reporting of child protection and welfare concerns. Training should also include clear information about the role of the statutory agencies with primary responsibility in child protection and welfare, namely, Tusla and An Garda Síochána.
If your organisation has employees who are mandated persons under the Children First Act 2015, you should also ensure that information and training specifically on the statutory responsibilities of mandated persons under the Act is made available to them.
If your organisation has a nominated designated liaison person and/or deputy designated liaison person, you should ensure that they receive adequate child protection and welfare information and training to enable them to undertake this role.
Tusla has developed a suite of resources including an e-learning training module, Introduction to Children First, which covers recognising and reporting child abuse, the role of mandated persons, mandated assisting, the responsibilities of organisations working with children to safeguard children using their services, and the role of designated liaison persons. You can access the e-learning module and other Tusla resources through the Tusla website - www.tusla.ie (or refer to the links in the Resources Section).
Information is also available on the Tusla website to assist your organisation if it wishes to develop its own specific Children First training. Tusla Children First - Best Practice Principles for Organisations in Developing Children First Training Programmes can be accessed here.
Introduction.
In line with Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (2017), the Arts Council is obliged to ensure that those in receipt of funding or grant aid, and whose work brings them into contact with children, are also meeting their obligations under the Children First Act 2015. The Arts Council has developed a quality assurance framework to measure and evidence the compliance of funded or grant-aided organisations and artists.
Accordingly, the Arts Council reserves the right to request and require information from recipients to evidence:
- their compliance with Children First 2015 and other relevant legal or national guidance, including the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012-2016 and Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (2017); and
- the truthfulness and accuracy of their replies to the questions.
Completing the Self-Audit of Child Protection and Welfare Policies and Procedures will confirm that policies and procedures comply with legislation such as the Children First Act 2015 and guidelines such as the Children First National Guidance for Child Protection and Welfare 2017.
The information supplied will be used by the Arts Council to evidence and measure compliance with relevant legislation and national guidance for promoting the safety and welfare of children who use the services provided.
The Arts Council reserves the right to request copies of any documents, records or other information referred to in the questions. Failure to comply with this request may affect future funding or grant aid to an individual or an organisation.
If an individual organisation has received funding from the Arts Council, drawdown of the funding will be dependent on the satisfactory completion of this Self-Audit of Child Protection and Welfare Policies and Procedures.
Self-audit form for individuals
Self-audit form for organisations or groups