Volunteer Recruitment & Child Protection: the Legislative Backdrop is Paramount

Over the next few weeks we're going to explore together the impact of the following statutory and non-statutory requirements which underpin the legal relationship of how clubs, charities and volunteer organisations are required to ensure that they are recruiting their volunteers in a safe way that protects the interests of the children involved in the organization.

What follows in this essay is an outline of some of the major statutory and non-statutory drivers underpinning the notion of the safe recruitment of volunteers in Ireland; as well as a deep-dive into the meaning of the word 'paramount' in the context of the 'welfare of children' (section 10 Children First Act 2015). We finish with a challenge to any club, charity or voluntary organisation: how high do you rank the welfare of children in your own organisation?

BACK OF THE ENVELOPE LEGISLATIVE DRIVERS

This is a back of the envelope jotting down of some of the major legislative drivers in Ireland around the safe recruitment of adult volunteers working with children and vulnerable adults:

But before doing a deep dive into the legislation, the list above is actually more of a roadmap for the next few essays in this series of essays, so I’d like us to take a step back.

I want us to have a look at a particular word.

That word is: “paramount”.

OF PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE

When I worked as a solicitor I would, on occasions, act on behalf of couples who were separating after the breakdown of a relationship.

The very first thing that I would explain to my client where a couple had children, was that the interests of the children would and should always be of paramount importance in the consideration of any of the separation issues.

SUPERSEDING ALL OTHER FACTORS

Indeed the interests of the child superseded all other factors.

Now of course this wasn’t a major issue for most separating couples.

But I certainly took the view that for some couples, the interests of their children had very much taken a back seat, as the couple’s separation became a reality.

Now it wasn’t my choice, as such, to point this fact out.

I was actually required to do so, under my professional obligations as a solicitor. In fact, I would often tell my clients that my job wasn’t to be their ‘friend’ and to tell them everything that they wanted to hear.

No, while I wasn’t setting out to be their friend, I would always be friendly and courteous, but my job was to give them my professional advice, setting out the options as I saw them, and to advise them on what I considered would be their best course of action.

It was of course entirely open to them to either accept - or reject - that advice.

I’m reminded of that as I write this essay, as it strikes me that there’s something of the same relationship that goes on when it comes to volunteer recruitment.

CLUBS, CHARITIES, CHILDREN - PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE

The safety and wellbeing of children – or vulnerable adults – is mandated in sports clubs, charities and voluntary organisations as being of paramount importance.

That phrase again.

Paramount importance.

Paramount is an interesting word.

It’s an adjective that means:

More important that anything else; supreme, of the greatest importance, of the highest rank.

It comes from the Anglo-Norman French word ‘paramont’; itself from the Old French ‘par’ (meaning ‘by’) and ‘amont’ (meaning above, to do with being atop a mountain).

Think of Paramount Studios, the iconic movies studio.

Anyhow, you get the point.

Supreme, at the top of the mountain, nothing is of higher importance.

CHILDREN FIRST: NATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR THE PROTECTION & WELFARE OF CHILDREN

In Children First: National Guidelines for the Protection & Welfare of Children, Dept of Health & Children, 1999, re-issued 2011, paragraph 1.1.1., the first and abiding principal for anyone with a responsibility for children is this:

There’s that word again! Paramount!

WHAT ABOUT IN YOUR CLUB / CHARITY?

To put the same phrase another way you could simply say:

So let me ask you this, as if we were sitting in a client consultation room together. How about in your sports club? Your voluntary organization?

YOU'RE SURE THAT CHILDREN'S WELFARE IS PARAMOUNT IN YOUR ORGANISATION?

Because if fundraising, if subscriptions, if maintenance of facilities, if your website, if your marketing materials, if your newsletter, if your accounts, if any of these rank higher in your club or organization’s list of priorities, then I’m just going to call it as I see it.

If any of the above are more important than the welfare of the children in your organization, then you’re taking the decision, whether consciously or not, to rank the welfare of the children as not being as important.

And as soon as you take the starting point that the welfare of children is not of paramount importance in your organization, well, let’s just say this is where things can start taking an unexpected turn

There's a lot to chew over here. Next week I'm going to have a look at one of the pieces of legislation called the Children First Act 2015, called section 10:

CHILD SAFEGUARDING - CHILDREN FIRST ACT 2015, SECTION 10

I hope you can join me as we unpack section 10 of the Children First Act 2015, and the impact that it has on the liability exposure of the Board of Directors of any voluntary sports club, charity or voluntary organisation.