The Royal Hibernian Academy of Arts is committed to a child-centered approach to our work with children and young people. Our mission is to create greater access to art and artist, and to deepen the public’s enjoyment of art. Through different strands of programming, including one-off workshops, drop-in family activities and outreach school and youth projects, we support children and young people to connect with our mission and to create a safe environment for children and young people to grow and develop. This programme is developed by our permanent staff and is delivered by freelance and casual staff, artists and art educators.
We have carried out a risk assessment of any potential for harm to a child while availing of our educational programmes as outlined above. Through this we have highlighted the need to educate all our workers on our Child Protection Policy and Procedures, including keeping our Garda vetting up-to-date.
This Child Safeguarding Statement has been developed in line with requirements under the Children First Act 2015, Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children (2017), and Tusla’s Child Safeguarding: A Guide for Policy, Procedure and Practice. In addition to the procedures listed in our risk assessment, the following procedures support our intention to safeguard children while they are availing of our service.
- Procedure for the management of allegations of abuse or misconduct against workers/volunteers of a child availing of our service;
- Procedure for the safe recruitment and selection of workers and volunteers to work with children;
- Procedure for the provision of and access to child safeguarding training and information, including the identification of the occurrence of harm;
- Procedure for the reporting of child protection or welfare concerns to Tusla;
- Procedure for maintaining a list of the persons (if any) in the relevant service who are mandated persons;
- Procedure for appointing a relevant person.
All procedures listed are available upon request.