A PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS BILL

SUBMISSION BY THE CHILDREN’S LAW CENTRE

INTRODUCTION

The Children’s Law Centre is an independent non- governmental organisation, which helps children and young people, parents/carers and professionals work with and understand the law relating to children.

We carry out the following work;

1. Research on children’s rights
2. Training and seminars on children’s rights and the law relating to children and young people in N Ireland
3. We run a Youth group called Youth @ clc
4. Legal advice service – we have a free phone number for young people
5. Policy work
6. Casework service in accordance with casework policy
7. Information service

Our work involves day- to - day contact with children and young people. Our response to the above proposals will be in relation to the implications for children and young people. We agree that children have the right to be protected from harm by a comprehensive seamless system and we would very much welcome the creation of a “one stop shop” in terms of vetting.

We do however have a number of points which we wish to raise at this stage in terms of the shortfalls of the current proposals and indeed of the remit of The Protection Of Children Act 1999 in England.

We should not be constrained by the limitations of The Protection Of Children Act in England, but rather should aim to build upon this legislation to ensure that all gaps are stopped. Our ultimate goal as required by The United Nations Convention On the Rights of The Child must be to protect as many children as possible from harm. Article 3 ECHR as incorporated by The Human Rights Act 1998 also requires states to provide effective legal mechanisms to protect children from inhuman and degrading treatment.

Case law has demonstrated that child abuse can amount to inhuman and degrading treatment and therefore if the State does not implement a coherent and comprehensive system of protection, the State could be potentially liable for harm caused to children as a result. For this reasons it is essential that the following matters are addressed and weaknesses in The Protection Of Children Act 1999 remedied before legislation is implemented in this jurisdiction.

DHSSPS STATUTORY LIST

We agree with the proposal to establish a statutory list containing the names of individuals who are considered unsuitable to work with children.

ORGANISATIONS WHO MUST AND MAY MAKE REFERRALS TO THE DHSS PS STATUTORY LIST

We note from The Protection of Children Act 1999 in England that childcare organisations are defined as follows;

Section 12(1)

a) which is concerned with the provision of accommodation, social service or health care services to children and supervision of children

b) whose activities are regulated by or by virtue of any prescribed enactment

c) which fulfils such other conditions as may be prescribed

(including organisations which may be licensed or controlled under a prescribed enactment)

Childcare position is defined as a position which

a) is concerned with the provision of accommodation, social services or health care services or the supervision of children

b) is such as to enable the holder to have regular contact with children in the course of his duties

We believe that all organisations who employ staff and/or volunteers who have contact with children and young people should be obliged to carry out checks and to make referrals through any new system. This should include all voluntary organisations and organisations such as the Brownies/Scouts/Guides. It should also include those who advise and represent children. Therefore we suggest that Section 12 b) and c) above should not be replicated in our legislation.

In our view the requirement to vet and refer should be a statutory duty/not a discretionary option.

We would support a system of accreditation with a condition that all organisations registering should vet staff and make appropriate referrals.

ENFORCEMENT

The Protection of Children Act 1999 does not appear to contain an enforcement clause. This of course will be necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions. Presumably the failure to pass on information or carry out appropriate vetting procedures could in itself give rise to a referral and this should be incorporated into legislation.

EDUCATION SECTOR/CROSS DEPARTMENTAL REFERRALS

There should be a statutory requirement for all Education Boards/schools/education welfare departments to vet all staff and refer teachers and others to the proposed list when appropriate. In our view Section 4.15 does not adequately deal with the referral of teachers/others in the education sector to the DHSS PS list and needs to be strengthened.

There should also be a statutory requirement on all government departments on a cross departmental basis who employ staff who have contact with children and young people (eg through consultation processes under Section 75) to carry out checks and refer employees to the list under the proposed scheme.

REFERRALS TO DHSS PS BY ORGANISATIONS OTHER THAN CHILDCARE ORGANISATIONS

We note the wording of Section 2 Protection of Children Act 1999 in England and would recommend that the word may should be replaced with the word shall.

LINK WITH POLICE ACT 1997

We note that Section 8 of The Protection of Children Act amends Section 113(3) Police Act 1997.Our view is that Part V of the Police Act and an establishment of a Criminal Records Bureau needs to be expedited alongside the current legislative proposals for the protective mechanisms to be effective.

We would support the establishment of a one - stop shop system and a mechanism whereby the registered users can gain access to enhanced criminal records certificates as well as information from the DHSS PS statutory list.

Ultimately it should be possible to carry out checks in each jurisdiction.

ARRANGEMENTS IN RELATION TO THE SOUTH

We believe that there needs to a comprehensive system of vetting in place in the North and South of Ireland. This will involve close co-operation to ensure that systems are compatible and easily accessible. As an interim measure we endorse the position of NSPCC in this regard.

CONSULTATION PROCESS

We believe that pursuant to the obligations imposed on public authorities by Section 75 Northern Ireland Act, the consultation process in relation to any policy which affects children and young people should have inbuilt mechanisms to address the need to consult with children and young people.

We appreciate that the protection of children raises complicated concerns in relation to procedure, but in our view, there are a number of issues where older children and young people may have had an input, not least around the question of which organisations should be required to vet and refer.

As an organisation we have recently carried out consultation with young people on a number of issues including the establishment of a children’s commissioner, physical punishment and the Bill of Rights.

The Children’s Law Centre is however a small voluntary organisation and we are unable to facilitate consultation on all new proposals for policies or legislation. We would therefore urge the DHSS PS to have regard to the need for meaningful consultation with children and young people on this occasion and in future. We have shared some general information in relation to consultation and hope that in future imaginative mechanisms can be used to ensure that the voices of our young people are heard. This should include the production of child friendly materials, very much in line with documentation, which has been produced by The Human Rights Unit in relation to The Children’s Commissioner and The Office of Law Reform in relation to physical punishment.

CONCLUSION

We very much welcome the consultation process, which has commenced in relation to protecting our children and young people. Whilst we recognise the essential steps forward which the Protection Of Children Act 1999 has taken, we would like to see the opportunity taken in this jurisdiction to mould some of these ideas into our own system and to widen the net considerably in terms of vetting and referral requirements.

THE CHILDREN’S LAW CENTRE, NOVEMBER 2001