Child Safeguarding

Early Learning and Care (ELC) and School Aged Childcare (SAC) services must keep written records of all child protection and welfare concerns, including concerns that may not reach the threshold for reporting to Tusla. Services must have a system in place where all workers are aware of how to record all child safeguarding concerns and this should form part of the services’ Child Safeguarding Procedures. Concerns must be recorded in order to identify any potential patterns that may cause concern in relation to safeguarding children. In order to ensure that all relevant information is recorded and appropriate steps are taken, concerns should be recorded on a standardised form that all workers are familiar with.

ELC and SAC services must have a procedure in place which outlines what concerns are recorded, how these concerns are recorded, how they are stored and who has access to them. In order to support ELC and SAC services to do this, the National Child Safeguarding Programme have developed a sample ‘Recording Child Protection and Welfare Concerns Form’.

This form is contained in the National Child Safeguarding Programme’s new publication ‘Child Safeguarding Resource Document – Child Safeguarding Statement, Policy and Procedures; Guidance for Early Learning and Care and School Aged Childcare Services in Ireland’. This resource is available on www.childsafeguardingelc.ie/resources-publications/

The ‘Recording Child Protect and Welfare Concerns Form’ outlines:

• Details of the concern
• Details of the person who raised the concern
• Who was contacted in relation to the concern?
• Details of informal consultation (if any)
• Any actions taken
• Details regarding informing parents

Points to note when using this form:

• This form is for recording child protection and welfare concerns internally within a service and must not be used to report concerns to Tusla. The Tusla Child Protection and Welfare Report Form must be used to report concerns to Tusla. The Tusla Child Protection and Welfare Report Form should ideally be submitted through the Tusla Web Portal. Where this is not possible, it should be sent by registered post to Tusla Social Work using the Dedicated Contact Point details. Dedicated Contact Points can be found here www.tusla.ie/get-in-touch/duty-social-work-teams/
• This form is not mandatory. It is considered best practice for recording all concerns that may arise in services, including those that may not be reported to Tusla as they do not reach the threshold of harm under the Children First Act or Reasonable Grounds for Concern.
• As a first point, child safeguarding concerns must be discussed with the Designated Liaison Person (DLP) in the service.
• The DLP must ensure that the service’s child safeguarding procedures are followed when there are child protection or welfare concerns.
• The DLP must ensure that all concerns are recorded in line with the service’s child safeguarding recording procedure.
• Records must be factual and include details of concerns and any decision and actions that have been taken in relation to the concern(s).
• Confidentiality must be maintained at all times and records of concerns must be stored securely in a separate storage area to other files.
• Concerns must be shared only on a need-to-know basis, in the best interests of the child. This should be managed by the DLP in the service.
• There must be a procedure in place where the DLP regularly reviews child safeguarding concerns. This standardised form should form part of your service’s Child Safeguarding Recording Procedure.
• Information on the Recording Child Protection and Welfare Concerns Form may be shared with Tusla and An Garda Siochana in line with your service’s reporting procedure.
• Records must be stored securely in line with the service’s Record Keeping Procedure and Confidentiality Procedure and the Pre-School Regulations 2016.