Dr. John Lawlor:

We did not have a position of safeguarding officer. When we engaged Mr. Elliot in the summer of 2017, our child protection officer had left that month. We engaged Mr. Elliot immediately to take on the role. We have not had someone in the old position but, as I have outlined previously, what is proposed now is an entirely new structure; it is not the replacement of one officer for another. We believe that would be an inappropriate structure not only because of the volume of complaints, of which the committee has got some sense of today, but the complexity of the job. It would put undue strain on one person if it all fell on him or her. Mr. Elliot spoke about the team and the need for a manager. We believe the next key step is to employ a manger who has the experience, background and qualifications and to build a team around that person.