Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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1481. To ask the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs if she will address a matter (details supplied) regarding the implementation of the Children First Act 2015; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [54514/17]

Katherine Zappone (Dublin South West, Independent)
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On 11 December 2017, all of those provisions of the Children First Act 2015 which were not already in force, were commenced in full. The Children First Act places the following statutory obligations on providers of relevant services to children: 

- To keep children safe from harm while they are availing of the service [section 10];

- To carry out a risk assessment to identify potential safeguarding risks which could arise while children are availing of the service [section 11 (1) (a)], and, 

- To develop a Child Safeguarding Statement [section 11 (3)] which must include both the written risk assessment and the policies and procedures which are in place to:

(i) Manage any risk identified

(ii) Investigate an allegation against any staff member about any act, omission or circumstance  in respect of a child availing of the service

(iii) Select and recruit staff who are suitable to work with children

(iv) Provide information and training to staff on child protection and safeguarding issues

(v) Enable staff members, whether mandated persons or otherwise, to make a report to Tusla in accordance with the Act, or nay guidelines issued by the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs

(vi) Maintain a list of persons in the organisation who are mandated persons under the Act

(vii) Appoint a relevant person in the organisation for the purposed of the Act. 

A list of the types of organisations which are classified as providers of relevant services to children is set out in Schedule 1 of the Children First Act. To qualify as a provider of a relevant service under the Act, an organisation must employ at least one other person to provide that service. Organisations should consult the Schedule to establish if they are a relevant service, and if so, it is a matter for each organisation to satisfy themselves if they have any statutory obligations under the Act, as outlined above, and to discharge those obligations. As with any regulatory regime, it is a matter for organisations to ensure that they are in compliance with the relevant requirements and to take their own advice as required

To assist sectors and organisations to fulfil their statutory obligations under the Act, my Department and Tusla have developed a suite of resources to support the full implementation of the Act. This suite of resources was launched on 2nd October 2017, and includes a revised edition of Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children[DCYA 2017] which contains a chapter specifically in relation to the responsibilities of organisations who provide services to children and young people.

In addition, Tusla has prepared several resource documents in relation to implementation of the Act, including one guidance document specifically in relation to the preparation of child safeguarding statements.  Tusla has also developed a comprehensive Children First e-training module which is universally available, free of charge and which sets out the information required to recognise and report child welfare and protection concerns. These resources are available on Tusla's website.