I propose to take Questions Nos. 542 to 545, inclusive, together.
The Children First Act 2015, which was fully commenced in December 2017, provides for a number of key child protection measures, including raising awareness of child abuse and neglect, providing for mandated reporting of child protection concerns and improving child protection arrangements in organisations providing services to children.
The Act places specific obligations on particular organisations that provide ‘relevant services’ to children and young people, including a requirement to keep children safe from harm while they are using the service, to carry out a risk assessment and to develop a Child Safeguarding Statement. These statutory obligations apply to all early years services under Schedule 1 of the Act.
Section 11 of the Act specifically deals with the content of the Child Safeguarding Statement. These must contain a written risk assessment and a specific list of procedures in place to address issues such as the selection and recruitment of staff, provision of child protection information and training to staff, reporting of child protection concerns to Tusla and investigation of allegations against staff. The organisation must also appoint a relevant person to be the first point of contact in respect of their Child Safeguarding Statement.
Under the Act, providers of relevant services are obliged to circulate their Child Safeguarding Statement to all staff members and to display it publicly. They must provide a copy of their Child Safeguarding Statement on request to Tusla, a parent or guardian of a child availing of the relevant service or to requesting members of the public. The Act also provides for Tusla to establish and maintain a publicly available register of non-compliance, for service providers who fail to provide a copy of their Child Safeguarding Statement to Tusla when requested to do so.
Schedule 2 of the Children First Act specifies mandated persons that are legally obliged to report abuse, and this includes registered providers and all educators and practitioners working in a registered early years service, following an amendment in the Child Care (Amendment) Act 2024. Mandated persons must report to Tusla any knowledge, belief or reasonable suspicion, based on information acquired in the course of their employment or profession, that a child has been harmed, is being harmed or is at risk of being harmed.
The Children First Act operates side-by-side with the non-statutory obligations provided for in Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017. The guidance sets out how reports about reasonable concerns of child abuse or neglect should be made by the general public and professionals to Tusla and what organisations need to do to keep children safe. These organisations should develop and put in place specific policies and procedures to create a safe environment, for example, around reporting child protection concerns, recruiting and managing staff and child safeguarding awareness and training.
Tusla’s Children First Information and Advice Service provide support to services in all sectors, including early years services, on the implementation of the 2015 Act. They have also developed a range of resources to assist with this.
With regard to disclosures, since September 2020 (S.I. 367 of 2020), the CEO of Tusla has been prescribed as the recipient of protected disclosures under the Protected Disclosures Act 2014 in all matters relating to the registration, supervision and inspection of early years services. Tusla has published guidance on the making of protected disclosures for staff working in the early years sector which is available online.
To support safeguarding in the early years sector, the Department funds the National Child Safeguarding Programme for Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School-Age Childcare (SAC). The programme works in conjunction with City and County Childcare Committees, Comhar Naíonraí na Gaeltachta and Tusla’s Children First Information and Advice Service to tailor and develop Children First training, resources and information to support child-centred practice in ELC and SAC services. A dedicated website, www.childsafeguardingelc.ie, provides all relevant information and updates. Between 2022-2025 Always Children First foundation training has been delivered to 5,807 settings. Designated Liaison Person (DLP) training commenced in 2024 and to the end of 2025, 422 settings have participated in the training. Childminding specific training commenced in 2025 with 89 childminders availing of the training.
The Department has not conducted, commissioned, or received any review since 2020 on “lawful information-sharing” in the early years sector for safeguarding concerns.
Although the Government is the primary funder of the sector, it is not the employer and cannot directly set terms and conditions on an individual’s employment.
However, to support Early Years services with the recruitment and selection of staff, Tusla has published guidance for policy on recruitment in Early Years Services. This document highlights the importance of engaging with the National Child Safeguarding Programme and ensuring services have a clear policy on how the service will respond to an anomaly, a concern or a positive disclosure as a result of vetting and specifies the risk assessment processes to be followed in such an eventuality.
The programme for Government commits to examine the establishment of a professional register for childminders and early years educators, reflecting professionalisation of the sector. In line with this commitment Nurturing Skills, the Workforce plan for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare aims to move incrementally towards the regulation of the Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare profession, building on the establishment in 2020 of the Qualifications Advisory Board and the future creation of a workforce register. The process of advancing this commitment will form part of the mid point review of Nurturing Skills and the associated consultations which will begin in the coming weeks.
