NBSCCCI Annual Report Published

National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church
May 23, 2017

https://www.safeguarding.ie/images/Reports/Press_statement_.pdf

The National Board for the Safeguarding of Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) published its annual report today. It details the work done by the Board and its National Office during the year ending 31st March 2017.

During the 2016/17 period, 86 new allegations were received including 72 new allegations relating to sexual abuse as well as 10 allegations of physical and emotional abuse, 1 relating to boundary violation and 3 where the abuse was unspecified. The bulk of these allegations relate to the period from the 1950s through to the 1990s, with a sharp drop in numbers after the year 2000.This represents a significant reduction on previous years; from 153 during 2015/16 and 265 new allegations during 2014/2015.

“The downward trend in allegations being made that we highlighted last year continues,” said Teresa Devlin, CEO, NBSCCCI. “But an examination of the trend dating back as far as 2009 when we started compiling these figures shows that we cannot assume the work is complete.

Over those years there have been years where the figures rose and only constant vigilance will keep children safe.”

Following the completion of the first set of reviews of practice and extensive consultations with affected parties, a revised set of standards was created along with a revised set of protocols for the next round of safeguarding reviews. This Annual Report emphasises two of the revised standards in particular.