CHILDREN SERVICES

children services

children services

The purpose of this assignment is to address the above statement. We will strive to demonstrate Standard 7, Safeguarding and Child Protection could not adequately attend to the issues of child protection for children in residential care. It is only in conjunction with the other nine standards that it can be fully understood and implemented. While there are ten standards in total, not all will be discussed in this essay. Throughout the assignment, the standards will be abbreviated to reduce repetition. Standard 1 will therefore become S1, standard 2, S2 and so on. Prior to discussing the National Standards for Children's Residential Centres exclusively, it is necessary to provide an overview of how Ireland's childcare system has evolved.

According to Lloyd deMause cited in the Irish journal of Applied Social Studies Volume 2, 'the history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken. The further back in history one goes the lower the level of childcare and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorised and sexually abused' . This quote from the American historian is also very true of Ireland's history with regard to children in care. Sociologically, the societies of past generations had a contrasting view from the current perspective as to what childhood should necessitate. Children in the 18th and early 19th century were often regarded as 'mini adults' used largely for labour purposes, they did not have individual rights and were deemed to be citizens of lesser significance. There was severe repression of the free will of children and often there were harsh and barbaric punishments doled out as a result.

Bremner, cited in 'Forgotten Children' (1983), believes there 'has been a growing awareness of children since the 19th century that children have risen in esteem and that sensitivity to the needs of young people and the importance of youth has been increasing.' Indeed Bremner went on to state that the protection of childhood was fundamental to human progress. This growing awareness has not been overlooked within Irish culture, though it has taken almost one hundred years for the necessary changes to be acknowledged and applied.

Ireland's history of residential care cannot evoke pride. With regard to the welfare and wellbeing of children in residential care, the system that was applied from 1868 to 1969 delivered a stark and minimalist quality of care. The Industrial Schools Act of 1868 began an institutionalised era that saw the systematic and habitual committal of children to lives of adversity, deprivation and seclusion. Physical and emotional abuse was prevalent and sexual abuse was perpetrated. The children committed to these schools were classified as being abandoned, neglected or orphaned; quite often, this was not the case. The industrial schools were funded and regulated by the state, but managed primarily by Catholic religious orders. Therefore, many children were institutionalised because of the perceived lack of their parent's morality; a widow, seeking comfort via the companionship of another male was immoral, and certainly ...