The Department of Education and Skills, the HSE and the Department of Children and Youth Affairs all provide useful information as to a school’s responsibility in relation to child protection.
The DES is responsible for developing and implementing child protection procedures for schools.
The Department’s procedures are based on Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children, 2011.
Download the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post Primary Schools.
The DES monitors the implementation of the Child Protection Procedures for Primary and Post Primary Schools during its whole school evaluation inspections. And failure in this regard is considered to be a serious one and the Department will expect the Board of Management to deal with any deficiencies without delay.
USEFUL RESOURCES
Visit the DES resource page on child protection.
The HSE (the HSE website is undergoing reconstruction at the moment; you will have to visit the home page and search to find ‘children and family services’ which is the section dealing with child protection in schools)