Submission
by
One in Four
to
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children
regarding
The Children First Bill 2012
May 11th, 2012
1 Introduction
One in Four is a charity that provides professional counselling and advocacy services to men and women who were sexually abused in childhood. We also provide a sex offender treatment programme and support to the families of both the victims and sex offenders.
The majority of people who contact us have been sexually abused within their families and neighbourhoods. Fewer than thirty per cent of clients have been sexually abused within the Catholic Church.
One in Four broadly welcomes the provisions of the Children’s First Bill. We are delighted that the new legislation will place clear, unambiguous obligations on statutory and voluntary organisations and on designated professionals to report concerns about children to the HSE. We also welcome the fact that the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs and the Minister for Justice and Equality are working closely together to ensure that the Children’s First Bill, the Criminal Justice (Withholding Information) Bill and the Vetting Bill will operate seamlessly together to create a framework of legislation that will keep children safe.
We would like to highlight four areas in which we believe the Bill can be enhanced: retrospective allegations, the needs of survivors, resourcing child protection services and designated professionals.
2Retrospective Allegations and the Needs of Survivors
We are very disappointed that the Children’s First Bill does not specifically consider the case of retrospective allegations, that is allegations concerning sexual abuse that took place in the past. The reality is that most children who are sexually abused do not disclose at the time of the abuse: they wait until they reach adulthood and feel safe.
All our clients are adults who were sexually abused as children. However, even though the sexual abuse took place five, ten or twenty years ago, this does not mean that the sex offender has stopped harming children. Therefore we work within the Children First Guidance, passing on all information to the HSE child protection services, operating in effect a mandatory reporting policy. This policy is clearly explained to all clients at the first meeting and they are asked to make a commitment to report to the HSE.
Many clients are alarmed and afraid when they realise that the identity of their abuser must be passed on to the HSE. We work with a client over a series of meetingsto explore all the implications of reporting. We can also offer information and support to their families. Ultimately, if a client cannot commit to making a report we do not accept them into long-term counselling. However, with support, the majority of clients come to accept that the report must be made in order to safeguard other children: fewer than five per cent choose not to engage.
This raises two areas of difficulty:
(i)We are dealing with often vulnerable and distressed adults who have reached out for help in order to deal with the impact of child sexual abuse on their lives. We have to balance their need to access services with the need to protect children. People are often very reluctant to make a report to the HSE, particularly if the sexual abuse has taken place within their families. They are afraid, with good reason, of the reaction of other family members to a disclosure of abuse.
Without the testimony of the victim there may be little a social worker can do to properly investigate the allegation: third party reports have little value.
When a survivor is supported to make a report to the HSE they will usually agree to be interviewed, to describe their experience of sexual abuse and to give details of the whereabouts of the sex offender, if known.
In our experience people require the consistent support of a skilled professional over a period of months before they are ready to speak to a HSE social worker. Without that support it is likely that many people will decide not to seek help for fear of what may happen, leaving the person who abused them free to harm other children.
Except in crisis situations where there is a clear and immediate risk to children, it is preferable to work for a period of time with the survivor so that they reach a point where they are ready to engage with child protection services. Hasty premature reporting without the cooperation of the client will result in organisations and professionals “ticking boxes” without any meaningful contribution to child protection.
(ii)In our experience when we or our clients make a child protection notification to the HSE it is rarely followed up. Because we are reporting so called “retrospective” allegations of sexual abuse we estimate that fewer than 10% are investigated. Understandably in an under-resourced child protection service, current reports take precedence. However, as discussed above, this means that many sex offenders are free to continue abusing children. This is particularly alarming in cases of intra-familial abuse where sexual abuse is often trans-generational.
Retrospective allegations that are supported by a survivor willing to participate in an investigation can have a major impact on keeping children safe: they need to be taken seriously and investigated.
We recommend that a section be included in the Bill which specifically creates an obligation to report retrospective allegations of child sexual abuse.
We recommend that the legislation takes account of the need for support services for survivors to encourage them to come forward and to facilitate their engagement with HSE child protection services.
We recommend that an obligation be specifically created for the HSE to investigate substantial retrospective allegations.
2 Resourcing Child Protection Services
While we strongly support the Minister for Children in placing the Children First Guidance on a statutory footing this is likely to increase the number of child protection notifications to the HSE. International experience shows that legislation off this type can overwhelm child protection services and actually increase the risk to children.[1] Thus the legislation will have little value unless the services are available to properly investigate increased referrals and to provide appropriate intervention and support to children and families.
While resourcing of services cannot be addressed in legislation, we recommend that the Children’s First Bill is accompanied by a protocol which ring fences sufficient funding to provide an adequate service.
3 Designated Professionals
We welcome the Minister for Children’s intention to provide guidance to organisations and designated professionals as to what level of knowledge and information would lead to an obligation to report under the new legislation. This is a complex area, and there is currently a great deal of confusion within statutory and voluntary agencies and among professionals as to what their obligations are under Children First. This leads to a wide variety of practice. For example, many professionals believe that if the client does not provide them with the identity of the offender then they are not obliged to report. Other agencies such as One in Four will not engage with a client in long-term counselling unless they commit to reporting the identity of their abuser to the HSE. There is a great need for this situation to be clarified.
We welcome the inclusion of independent counsellors and psychotherapists on the appendix of designated professionals. They are often the people to whom disclosures of sexual abuse are made by survivors.
A difficulty arises in that counsellors and psychotherapists do not as yet have a statutory register.
We recommend that the Minister for Children publishes clear guidelines in a timely manner as to what level of knowledge or information will create an obligation to report.
We recommend that all counsellors and psychotherapists who are accredited by either the Irish Council for Psychotherapy through its constituent professional bodies, by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapyor by the Psychological Society of Ireland should be obliged to report disclosures of abuse of children, both current and retrospective.
4. CONCLUSION
The passing into law of the Children First Bill will be a welcome development in the Irish child protection framework.
The various Reports of the past decade have shown us that secrecy and silence endanger children. Children were abused and tortured in plain sight because adults looked away. Today children are still being abused, often within their own families, and adults often still do not report concerns.
The real contribution this Bill, together with the Criminal Justice (Withholding Information) Bill and the Vetting Bill will make will be to foster a culture where it becomes the responsibility of every adult in this country to ensure that every child grows up safe from harm.
______
Maeve Lewis
Executive Director
One in Four
2 Holles St,
Dublin 2
PH. 01 6624070
May 10th 2012
1
[1] Munro Review, Dept. of Education UK 2011