Dept of Education defends handling of abuse cases [Sunday Post]
- Published: 18 January 2009
Source: Sunday Business Post
By: Martha Kearns
The Department of Education and Science has defended its handling of cases in which teachers are accused of child abuse. It was responding to claims from the three main teaching unions that allegations of abuse against teachers were being passed onto the Health Service Executive (HSE) directly without the individual teachers being informed.
The unions had said that the first some teachers knew about allegations was when they were ''confronted'' by HSE staff. However, a department spokesman told The Sunday Business Post that it informed the schools of any allegations of abuse at the same time that it told the HSE.
He said that, under child protection guidelines, details of allegations of abuse received were referred to the school authorities, which were requested to confirm that the matter was being handled in accordance with prescribed guidelines and procedures.
''At the same time, the matter is brought to the attention of the HSE, which is advised that details of the allegation have been forwarded to the school for urgent attention," said the spokesman.
He said that the primary statutory responsibility for child protection lay with the HSE and ''it is not the role of the department to investigate allegations of abuse''.
''The role of the department is to provide guidance and support to schools in implementing child protection policy and to refer any allegations to the appropriate authorities."
