Children First Legislation

The Children First Act 2015, which was signed into law on 19 November 2015, puts elements of the Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children on a statutory footing. The legislation was a key Programme for Government commitment, and forms part of a suite of child protection legislation which includes the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts, 2012-2016 and the Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012.

The Act provides for a number of key child protection measures, as follows:

• requirement on organisations providing services to children to keep children safe from harm and to produce a Child Safeguarding Statement
• requirement on defined categories of persons (mandated persons) to report child protection concerns over a defined threshold to the Child and Family Agency
• requirement on mandated persons to assist the Child and Family Agency in the assessment of a child protection risk, if requested to do so by the Agency
• putting the Children First Interdepartmental Implementation Group on a statutory footing

The Act also includes a provision which abolished the common law defence of reasonable chastisement in relation to corporal punishment.

The legislation operates in tandem with the existing Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children, which outlines the non-statutory obligations which will continue to operate administratively for all sectors of society.