TUTORIAL PAPER TEMPLATE

ID of Student: G00378698
Article/Reading: Children First; National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children

1. CONCISE SUMMARY OF READING

Children First refers to both the Children First Act of 2015 and Children First: National
Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children. It's a general term for laws,
suggestions, and their implementation. The 2017 publication Children First: National
Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children is a resource for the public, staff
members, experts, and volunteers alike that aids in recognizing and reporting child abuse and
neglect as well as providing efficient solutions to the issues raised. The four primary
categories of abuse—physical, sexual, emotional, and neglect—are described in this
document. The actions that must be performed to guarantee the young person's protection are
also outlined in the paper. It also describes the legal responsibilities of mandated individuals
and organizations designated under the Children First Act 2015, along with details on the
procedures followed by the statutory authorities in response to child-related reports.
HSE social work teams handled any problems prior to Tusla taking over as the body in
charge of child protection and welfare services in 2014. Children First lays forth specific
guidelines for social workers who work in Tusla, Gardaí, and other front-line personnel when
handling cases of suspected abuse and neglect. It highlights the importance of
interdisciplinary and interagency cooperation in handling concerns regarding children's safety
and welfare.
Important details about child protection are provided by the Children First Act of 2015,
including:

 A requirement for child safety and the creation of a Child Safeguarding Statement for
organizations offering services to children.
 Mandatory reporting of child safety issues to the Child and Family Agency (Tusla) by
specified groups of people (mandated persons).
 A mandate that mandated individuals "provide to the Agency such information and
assistance as it may reasonably demand" to help the Child and Family Agency assess
a risk to children's safety.
 The Non-Fatal Offences against Person Act 1997 was amended to remove the

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 reasonable reprimand defence. This implies that the defence of reasonable
chastisement will no longer be available to someone who uses corporal punishment on
a child.
 Establishing a legal foundation for the Children First Interdepartmental Group.
Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017 aims to
help the public identify child abuse and report valid issues regarding the welfare or protection
of children. The non-statutory obligations that each person has and that were in force prior to
the previous guidance are described in the Guidance. It also describes the legal obligations
under the Children First Act for various professions and organizations.

2. CRITICAL REFLECTION

Since children are among the most vulnerable members of society, it is crucial to protect and
look out for them. A national framework known as "Children First" was created to offer a
thorough method for ensuring children's safety and wellbeing. The goal of this tutorial article
is to give readers a thorough understanding of the fundamental ideas, rules, and tactics
presented in Children First, as well as helpful application tips.

“An Act for the purposes of making further and better provision for the care and protection of
children and for those purposes to require the preparation, by certain providers of services to
children, of child safeguarding statements; to require certain persons to make reports to the
Child and Family Agency in respect of children in certain circumstances; to require certain
persons to assist the Child and Family Agency in certain circumstances; to provide for the
establishment of the Children First Inter Departmental Implementation Group; to make
provision for the preparation of sectoral implementation plans by Departments of State; to
provide for the abolition of the common law defence of reasonable chastisement and, for that
purpose, to amend the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997; and to provide for
related matters”. (Act, 2015)
I also found out more on what it is to be a mandated person. “The Children First Act 2015
places a legal obligation on certain people, many of whom are professionals, to report child
protection concerns at or above a defined threshold to Tusla - Child and Family Agency.
These mandated persons must also assist Tusla, on request, in its assessment of child
protection concerns about children who have been the subject of a mandated report”. (Tusla,
2019) Mandated persons are people who have contact with children and/or families who, by
virtue of their qualifications, training and experience, are in a key position to help protect
children from harm. Mandated persons include key professionals working with children in
the education, health, justice, youth and childcare sectors. Certain professionals who may not
work directly with children, such as those in adult counselling or psychiatry, are also
mandated persons. I was aware that myself as a future educator was listed as a mandated
person but I was not aware of the rest.
I feel like I have gained a better understanding of the significance of having laws such as
these in place after reading and reflecting about Children First: National Guidance for the
Protection and Welfare of Children. I've been reading a lot of summaries and documents

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 online about children protection over the last few days, and while it was initially a little
difficult, I found them to be helpful. Those who work with children or who may have
concerns about a child or young person ought to carefully read these documents, as they
clearly outline the legal requirements for organizations and specific professions under the
Children First Act. It's crucial that people are aware of who to contact in the event of a
concern of this nature. I believe the document is easily understood and has a good layout.
There are six chapters in all, and it is quite simple to locate the areas you're looking for. The
purpose of the book's fourth page is to assist readers in understanding how to use it. It does
this by providing a summary of each chapter's contents and identifying the readers who will
benefit from reading it. As a result, the document is much easier to browse around. The
document goes into detail about each of the four basic categories of abuse—emotional,
physical, sexual, and neglect—and provides examples of how to recognize each one. The
article lists the major objectives of each chapter at the outset. I believe this is very helpful to
the reader since it allows them to review the objectives before reading the entire chapter,
which will enable them to determine whether the chapter will include the information they
are searching for.
This paper has a lot of content, which I believe could be daunting for some individuals.
However, as I've already noted, the layout makes it easy to discover the information you
need. In conclusion, I found this article to be very instructive, and I think everyone—not just
those who work with children—should carefully read it. Everyone should be aware of the
warning signs of child abuse and know exactly what to do if they have concerns about a child
or young person.

3. LIST OF REFERENCES

References
Act, C. F. (2015). Children First Act 2015. Retrieved from
https://data.oireachtas.ie/ie/oireachtas/act/2015/36/eng/enacted/a3615.pdf

Dr Eamonn Furey & Dr John Canavan. (2019, March). Tusla. Retrieved from Tusla:
https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/79073001/COMPWELFINALREPORTMARCH29_-_Final-
libre.pdf?1642596263=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename
%3DA_review_on_the_availability_and_compara.pdf&Expires=1713911154&Signature=eVxH
hGd0EIeEdlwFaxrylpGmcGYd

Tusla. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.tusla.ie/children-first/mandated-persons/

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