THE AUTHOR of a major review of child protection in the UK has warned that plans to introduce mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse or neglect in Ireland could end up doing more harm than good.
Under the Children First Bill published last month, professionals or organisations that work with children will have a legal obligation to report suspicions or allegations of abuse to social services.
Failure to do so could result in a fine or jail term of up to five years.
However, Prof Eileen Munro of the London School of Economics has warned that these moves could end up draining resources away from frontline child protection services. She was commissioned by the UK government to review the child protection system in England last year, focusing on whether bureaucracy and targets had got in the way of good practice.
Her recommendations – known as the “Munro Review” – have since formed the basis for an overhaul of the way child protection services are organised in England.
Speaking yesterday, she said mandatory reporting was never seriously considered in England.
Under that system professionals tend to anonymously report a concern and assume their job is finished, she said. However, their background knowledge of the family or relationship with family members can be crucial resources.
“If you give people the option, as you seem to do with mandatory reporting, many will avoid getting involved in child abuse work so children will fare worse.”
She posed a number of questions which she said the Government should address prior to introducing such a system.
“Is the Government contemplating this policy because it considers cases are being missed? If so, it will expect a rise in reports,” she said.
“Has it done a full costing of this? If it doesn’t, the chances are the increased number of reports will drain money away from the services that are trying to help families improve so overall children will be worse off.”
Prof Munro said professionals in England have a professional – not legal – duty to report concerns about actual or possible maltreatment, but “they don’t just make the report and walk away”, she said.
“They are involved in the case conference to discuss the level of risk and what to do, and they are involved as appropriate in offering help to the family or monitoring them,” she said.
Mandatory reporting of child abuse not a panacea: page 14
