Children First Awareness Week
Dear provider,
This year’s Children First Awareness Week will take place 15 to 21 September with the core message “We Are Children First”. The aim of Children First Awareness Week is to raise awareness of Children First and remind wider society, including organisations working with children and young people and the wider public, of our collective responsibility to keep them safe in our communities. The campaign supports the implementation of the Children First Act 2015 and the Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017, reinforcing the shared responsibility to protect children across all sectors of Irish society.
This year’s campaign will focus on parents, guardians, and other responsible adults as the key target audience. The campaign messaging will aim to help parents and guardians to understand what they should expect from organisations working with children on safeguarding matters, including questions to ask on safeguarding policies, reporting procedures, and respectful, supportive engagement. It seeks to equip adults with the knowledge and confidence to ask appropriate questions of organisations about safeguarding matters.
How You Can Support
• Check your setting policies and procedures are up to date and that parents are aware of them.
• Staff have completed relevant training –
o Tusla’s Always Children First eLearning Programme
o Tusla’s Mandated Person eLearning Module
o Tusla’s Designated Liaison Persons (DLP) eLearning Module Part A (This training is not relevant to Childminders). Or contact your local City and County Childcare Committee.
• Support the social media campaign. If you see any social media posts helping raise awareness of Children First, please share with your team and parents.
Early Learning and Care and School-Age Childcare including childminding resources
Further child safeguarding resources, including information on developing your Child Safeguarding Statement, policies and procedures can be found in the Child Safeguarding Resource Document; Guidance for Early Learning and Care and School Age Childcare Services in Ireland and on the National Child Safeguarding Programme website https://childsafeguardingelc.ie/
