Children first act 2015

• Enactment Date: 19 November 2015
• Act Number: 36

Number 36 of 2015
Children First Act 2015
CONTENTS
PART 1
Preliminary and General
Section
1. Short title and commencement
2. Definitions
3. Regulations
4. Service of notices
5. Expenses
6. Guidelines
7. Best interests of child
PART 2
Child Safeguarding Statements
8. Definitions for purposes of Part 2
9. Application of Part
10. Child safeguarding
11. Risk assessment and child safeguarding statements, etc.
12. Non-compliance with request to furnish child safeguarding statement
13. Register of non-compliance
PART 3
Reporting
14. Mandated persons
15. Authorised persons
16. Agency may request mandated persons to assist with assessments
17. Information obtained by Agency or other persons pursuant to Act
18. Agency is specified body for purposes of National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012
19. Views of child - amendment of Child and Family Agency Act 2013
PART 4
Children First Inter-Departmental Implementation Group and Sectoral Implementation Plans
20. Children First Inter-Departmental Implementation Group
21. Membership of Implementation Group
22. Functions of Implementation Group
23. Directions of Minister
24. Conditions and cessation of membership
25. Meetings and procedures
26. Reports
27. Sectoral implementation plans
PART 5
Miscellaneous
28. Abolition of defence of reasonable chastisement
SCHEDULE 1
Relevant Services
SCHEDULE 2
Mandated Persons
SCHEDULE 3
Offences for Purposes of Paragraph (a) of Definition of “Sexual Abuse” in Section 2
Acts Referred to
Adoption Act 2010 (No. 21)
Child and Family Agency Act 2013 (No. 40)
Child Care Act 1991 (No. 17)
Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 (No. 22)
Children Act 2001 (No. 24)
Companies Acts
Criminal Justice (Community Service) Act 1983 (No. 23)
Criminal Justice (Withholding of Information on Offences against Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 (No. 24)
Criminal Justice Act 2006 (No. 26)
Criminal Law (Human Trafficking) Act 2008 (No. 8)
Criminal Law (Rape) (Amendment) Act 1990 (No. 32)
Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 1993 (No. 20)
Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2006 (No. 15)
Dentists Act 1985 (No. 9)
Education Act 1998 (No. 51)
Employment Agency Act 1971 (No. 27)
Health Act 2007 (No. 23)
Health and Social Care Professionals Act 2005 (No. 27)
Medical Practitioners Act 2007 (No. 25)
National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Act 2012 (No. 47)
Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 (No. 26)
Nurses and Midwives Act 2011 (No. 41)
Ombudsman for Children Act 2002 (No. 22)
Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851 (14 & 15 Vic, c. 93)
Protections for Persons Reporting Child Abuse Act 1998 (No. 49)
Punishment of Incest Act 1908 (8 Edw. 7, c. 45)
Youth Work Act 2001 (No. 42)
Number 36 of 2015
CHILDREN FIRST ACT 2015
An Act for the purposes of making further and better provision for the care and protection of children and for those purposes to require the preparation, by certain providers of services to children, of child safeguarding statements; to require certain persons to make reports to the Child and Family Agency in respect of children in certain circumstances; to require certain persons to assist the Child and Family Agency in certain circumstances; to provide for the establishment of the Children First Inter-Departmental Implementation Group; to make provision for the preparation of sectoral implementation plans by Departments of State; to provide for the abolition of the common law defence of reasonable chastisement and, for that purpose, to amend the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act 1997 ; and to provide for related matters.
[19 th November, 2015]
Be it enacted by the Oireachtas as follows:
PART 1 Preliminary and General
		Short title and commencement
1. (1) This Act may be cited as the Children First Act 2015.
	(2) This Act shall come into operation on such day or days as the Minister may appoint by order or orders either generally or with reference to any particular purpose or provision and different days may be so appointed for different purposes or provisions.
		Definitions
2. In this Act—
	“Agency” means the Child and Family Agency;
	“authorised person” has the meaning assigned to it by section 15 (1);
	“child” has the same meaning it has in section 2 of the Child Care Act 1991 ;
	“child safeguarding statement” has the meaning assigned to it by section 11 (1);
	“enactment” means a statute or an instrument made under a power conferred by statute;
	“harm” means, in relation to a child—
	(a) assault, ill-treatment or neglect of the child in a manner that seriously affects or is likely to seriously affect the child’s health, development or welfare, or
	(b) sexual abuse of the child,
	whether caused by a single act, omission or circumstance or a series or combination of acts, omissions or circumstances, or otherwise;
	“Implementation Group” has the meaning assigned to it by section 20 ;
	“ill-treatment” means, in relation to a child, to abandon or cruelly treat the child, or to cause or procure or allow the child to be abandoned or cruelly treated;
	“mandated person” means a person who is a person specified in Schedule 2 ;
	“mandated report form” has the meaning assigned to it by section 14 (6);
	“Minister” means the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs;
	“neglect” means, in relation to a child, to deprive the child of adequate food, warmth, clothing, hygiene, supervision, safety or medical care;
	“prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under section 3 ;
	“relevant service” means any work or activity specified in Schedule 1 ;
	“sectoral implementation plan” has the meaning assigned to it by section 27 (1);
	“sexual abuse” means, in relation to a child—
	(a) an offence against the child, specified in Schedule 3 ,
	(b) wilful exposure of the child to pornography, or
	(c) wilful sexual activity in the presence of the child;
	“welfare” includes, in relation to a child, the moral, intellectual, physical, emotional and social welfare of the child.
		Regulations
3. (1) The Minister may by regulations provide for any matter referred to in this Act as prescribed or to be prescribed.
	(2) Regulations under this Act may contain such incidental, supplementary and consequential provisions as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient for the purposes of the regulations.
	(3) Every regulation under this Act shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the regulation is passed by either such House within 21 days on which that House sits after the regulation is laid before it, the regulation shall be annulled accordingly, but without prejudice to the validity of anything previously done thereunder.
		Service of notices
	4. (1) A notice that is required to be served on a person under this Act shall be addressed to the person by name and may be so served in one of the following ways:
	(a) by delivering it to the person;
	(b) by leaving it at the address at which the person ordinarily resides or, in a case in which an address for service has been furnished, at that address;
	(c) by sending it by post in a pre-paid registered letter to the address at which the person ordinarily resides or, in a case in which an address for service has been furnished, to that address.
	(2) For the purposes of this section, a company within the meaning of the Companies Acts shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its registered office, and every other body corporate and every unincorporated body of persons, shall be deemed to be ordinarily resident at its principal office or place of business.
		Expenses
5. The expenses incurred by the Minister or any other Minister of the Government in the administration of this Act shall, to such extent as may be sanctioned by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, be paid out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas.
		Guidelines
6. (1) The Minister may issue guidelines for the purpose of providing practical guidance to persons in respect of the protection and welfare of children.
	(2) The Minister shall publish guidelines issued under subsection (1) in such manner (including on the internet) as he or she considers appropriate.
	(3) Any guidelines that have been issued by the Minister before the commencement of this subsection for the purpose of providing practical guidance in respect of the protection and welfare of children, and that are in force immediately before that commencement, shall, on such commencement, be deemed to be guidelines issued under subsection (1).
		Best interests of child
7. The Agency shall, in performing a function under this Act, regard the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration.
PART 2 Child Safeguarding Statements
		Definitions for purposes of Part 2
8. In this Part—
	“advance notice” shall be construed in accordance with section 12 (2);
	“contract of employment” means—
	(a) a contract of service or apprenticeship, or
	(b) any other contract whereby an individual agrees with another person, who is carrying on the business of an employment agency within the meaning of the Employment Agency Act 1971 , and is acting in the course of that business, to do or perform personally any work or service for a third person (whether or not the third person is a party to the contract),
	whether the contract is express or implied and, if express, whether it is oral or in writing;
	“non-compliance notice” means a notice served by the Agency under section 12 (6);
	“personal relationship” has the same meaning as it has in section 3 of the National Vetting...