New child protection standards will help keep Wicklow children safe - Harris

New child protection standards will help keep Wicklow children safe - Harris

Fine Gael Wicklow TD, Simon Harris, has said the new National Standards for the Protection and Welfare of Children will change the way vulnerable children are cared for. Deputy Harris attended the launch of the standards by An Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, and Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Frances Fitzgerald TD yesterday (Wednesday).

Deputy Harris said, “These new standards will put an end to decades of child protection services reacting to events and empower them to be proactive. They are about protecting children from risk and harm. Now for the first time, we have a set of mandatory standards, written in plain English, which clearly and simply set out the standards which service providers have to meet.”

“Under the standards, service providers must listen to the needs of children, promote wellbeing and focus on positive outcomes. By establishing clear lines of accountability we can deliver services to children based on evidence and good practice.”

“There will also be a monitoring aspect with HIQA to monitor the HSE and the services it provides to children nationally from this year. Inspections will be carried out to gather evidence, and judgements will be made on whether adequate services are being provided. All of this information will be provided to the Minister for Children, and will be published on HIQA’s website.”