The Government is to publish strict new guidelines on child protection requiring sports organisations, health boards and schools to provide training for staff in dealing with child-abuse cases.
The guidelines, the most comprehensive and far-reaching ever produced in the State, have been drawn up after a string of child-abuse scandals in recent years. They are to be published by the Minister of State with responsibility for children, Mr Frank Fahey, next Monday.
The guidelines state that anybody working with children will in future have a "corporate duty and responsibility" to safeguard them.
They propose the establishment of child protection committees in each health board area and, more locally, liaison management teams, comprising social workers and gardai, to investigate abuse cases in Garda districts.
As well as physical, sexual and emotional abuse, the guidelines place a huge emphasis on child neglect.
For the first time in child-abuse guidelines, reference is made to abuse of children by professionals, such as teachers and sports coaches. Previous guidelines only ever made mention of abuse within families.
The guidelines contain separate sections for teachers, doctors, gardai, probation officers, health board staff and other professionals on how to tackle suspected cases of physical or sexual child abuse.
Entitled Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection and Welfare of Children, the guidelines have been drawn up by a working group established by Mr Fahey in February 1998. The group updated guidelines issued by the Department of Health in 1987 and guidelines issued to health boards and gardai concerning the notification of suspected cases of child abuse in 1995.
A source said last night the guidelines are so comprehensive that no professional, or anyone in the children business, will be able to say in future they did not know what to do on encountering suspected abuse cases
The guidelines place strong emphasis on training for those working with children: "All agencies involved with children have a responsibility to ensure that training is available on an ongoing basis. A strategy for training in childcare must be developed in each health board."
Training should be provided by a variety of professionals from different agencies, the code states.
A senior staff member in each organisation dealing with children should be designated to play a central role in developing and monitoring training in childcare and protection under the auspices of the new child protection committees to be established in each health board area.
"Management of schools, pre-schools and voluntary organisations including sporting groups must ensure that personnel are trained in the signs of abuse and on how to report it".
Front-line personnel in services dealing with the public, such as telephonists and receptionists, should also be given clear instructions on what action to take if contacted by anyone reporting suspected child abuse.
The guidelines say that training needs will change continuously and that a percentage of the annual budget in organisations dealing with children should be committed to child protection training.
"An annual review of the training strategy for childcare and protection should also be undertaken," it says.
On the investigation of child-abuse cases, the guidelines call for the establishment of a liaison management team consisting of social work team leaders and senior gardai in each Garda district. The function of the team will be to check initial child-abuse reports, assign personnel to investigate and to supervise and review progress in each case.
The guidelines say the liaison teams should chart the progress of an investigation into a suspected child-abuse case by filling out a standard joint action sheet on different cases "to ensure accountability".
In future, health board officials who suspect a child is being physically or sexually abused or wilfully neglected must formally notify gardai. A health board must not wait until confirmation of abuse before notifying the Garda authorities. Likewise, gardai must notify the local health board if they come across a suspected child-abuse case.
The code makes clear that professionals who see children on a private basis, such as GPs, must also follow the new guidelines if they are concerned about a child's safety or welfare and calls for a copy of the guidelines to be made available to all private practitioners.
"Childcare and protection is a corporate responsibility of all employees of health boards. The development of training strategies at health board level must reflect this premise with appropriate training at a multidisciplinary level.
"All organisations providing services to children also have an overall corporate duty and responsibility to safeguard children"