Child Safeguarding Update 2015

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublinn
June 12, 2015

http://www.dublindiocese.ie/2015/06/12/child-safeguarding-update-2015/

Child safeguarding measures increase as level of complaints decrease

An ongoing decline in the number of abuse allegations against priests has allowed the Dublin Diocesan Safeguarding service to significantly increase the level of child protection training it offers to parishes.

Today (Friday 12th June) the SCPS, Child Safeguarding and Protection Service, launched its annual update of statistical information and also highlighted the availability of Towards Peace, a national service aimed at providing spiritual support to victims of abuse.

The Director of Safeguarding for the Dublin Archdiocese, Andrew Fagan, said the number of allegations of abuse processed by the service has dropped significantly over the past five years. This has allowed them to apply more resources in the area of safeguarding and increase the effort around prevention of child abuse.

This includes providing training to child safeguarding representatives in parishes, meeting regularly with parish teams and identifying and improving areas where prevention measures can be improved.

Close to 1,000 people availed of training and information services last year. The number of Dublin Diocesan trainers accredited by the National Board has increased and another 7,000 people including clergy, lay staff and volunteers were Garda vetted.

Mr. Fagan paid tribute to the many external agencies represented that supported them in their work, including members of An Garda Siochana and representatives from Tusla, the Child and Family Agency. He said it was also crucial to the work of the SCPS that they can rely on the support and expertise of the staff of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church and organisations that support those who have experienced sexual crime. He said over the years they have developed very positive working relationships with One in Four, the Rape Crisis Centre and others.

Presenting an update of the Child Protection Information for the past year, Mr. Fagan said that while there was an increase in the number of priests who were the subject of a complaint of abuse, the overall number of such complaints has declined steadily in recent years. They were running at about 100 per annum in 2010/ 2011 but over the past two years there have been less than 40 per annum. He said this decline reflects the experience of the Church counselling service, Towards Healing, who published their annual report earlier this week. “For us that mean that less of our time is taken up with case work, freeing us up to do much more work of a preventive nature. But there can be no room for complacency,” he added.

Those assembled also heard from representatives of Towards Peace, a spiritual support service for those affected by abuse within a Church context. This initiative arose out of discussions between representatives of survivor groups and members of the Bishop’s Conference. One woman who has experienced the Towards Peace support spoke of her experience and why spiritual direction and companionship is an important part of the journey of reconciliation and healing.

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