merrion street

The Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Dr Katherine Zappone, has this evening (27th Feb 2019) published a letter from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency to Scouting Ireland.

Minister Zappone believes the contents of the letter are serious and should be brought to the attention of parents.

Announcing the publication Minister Zappone added:

“After becoming aware of the very serious concerns raised by Tusla with Scouting Ireland I have been consulting with the Chief Social Worker and other senior officials within my Department.

We have concluded that Scouting Ireland must act on each of eight recommendations made by Tusla in its correspondence.

• Scouting Ireland must meet the Children First experts in Tusla within the next week. 

• Scouting Ireland must look at the key personnel responsible for safeguarding within the organisations and make sure they fulfil all the required criteria. 

• The CEO of Scouting Ireland must be the main point of contact for Tusla regarding Children First. 

• The issue of safeguarding and protection of children must be elevated to Board level within Scouting Ireland 

• Scouting Ireland must co-operate with a Tusla review of child protection concerns as well as the handling of disclosures from children.

 Scouting Ireland will be directed to work with Tusla to define a robust framework for the supervision of children – while all volunteers must be trained on child safeguarding.

 Parents should seek assurances that no over-night trips take place without adequate numbers of trained supervisors. Scouting Ireland must ensure that each of these supervisors knows the exact steps to take if a child comes to them with a concern or if something happens.

Parents who seek these assurances and ask sensible questions are behaving reasonably and responsibly.

 In terms of the final recommendation I have asked and Tusla has agreed that it will open a helpline tomorrow – independent of Scouting Ireland . The helpline 086 6040337  opens from 10am to 4pm. 

I wish to commend the child safety and protection officials in Tusla who engage everyday with organisations, groups and companies working with children to ensure robust safeguarding procedures are in place.

 They remain committed to working with Scouting Ireland.”