Amendment to Safeguarding Statement & Risk Assessment
Background
Following engagement between the Department of Education and the Education partners the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools 2017 have been revised.
The 2023 procedures have been updated to take account of recent policy and legislative developments which include General Data Protection Regulation, the Child Protection and Safeguarding Procedures for Boarding Facilities associated with Recognised Schools 2023 and the Teaching Council (Information to be Furnished by Employer in Case of Dismissal or Resignation of Registered Teacher) Regulations 2023.
The revised procedures are effective from 1 September 2023
The revised Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools (revised 2023) can be found here
The revised procedures are have been brought to the attention of all school staff and board of management members. The board of management at the first meeting following the 1st September 2023 shall formally adopt the 2023 procedures.
We adopted the new procedures at our Board of Management meeting on Monday 25th September.
Key Changes:
It is the responsibility of each relevant school authority to put in place the necessary arrangements to ensure full compliance with the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post-Primary Schools (revised 2023).
In particular: a) any documents provided as part of the Child Protection Oversight Report must now be anonymised to ensure that the identities of any children and any other parties, including the member of school personnel to whom the concern or report relates, are not disclosed.
b) Employers must notify the Teaching Council once a teacher stands dismissed from 11 May 2023 onwards (or resigns following upon the making of a complaint or the invoking of a disciplinary process).
c) Each relevant school authority when next reviewing their Child Safeguarding Statement should ensure that it is using the latest mandatory templates provided by the Department for the Child Safeguarding Statement (including a Risk Assessment), the annual review and notification of the annual review.
We have updated our Child Safeguarding Statement & Risk Assessment to reflect the changes, using the new templates. See updated policy below.
