On 6 November 2024, a Roundtable was organised in Dublin to present the different reports developed or under development in the framework of the joint European Union–Council of Europe project “Support the implementation of the Barnahus project in Ireland”. Representatives from the EU DG Reform, the Council of Europe and the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) chaired the Roundtable, with participation from Children’s Health Ireland (CHI), the Health Service Executive (HSE), Tusla (the Child and Family Agency), An Garda Síochána (Ireland’s Police force), and the Barnahus National Agency Steering Committee (BNASC). Four main deliverables were presented at the Roundtable:
The “Strategy to Scale-Up Barnahus Services in Ireland”, which offers an overview of the current status of the Barnahus model in Ireland and provides guidance and recommendations on multidisciplinary and interagency collaboration, service provision, staffing, facility standards, and child safeguarding measures.
The “Communication Strategy and Action Plan” provides a clear framework for communicating about Barnahus, effectively engaging target audiences and defining key messages and methods. The Strategy includes an Action Plan which specifies the steps needed and the leading agency or agencies implementing the actions of the Strategy. A visual identity for Barnahus has also been developed, using the Galway Barnahus logo as the basis for the new iteration. A consultation with children was organised to include their perspectives in the final logo for Barnahus in Ireland, which has been adopted by the Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) and presented at the Roundtable. In parallel, a website for Barnahus in Ireland is being developed.
Siobhan Barron, Department of Justice, and Ian Lackey, Detective Superintendent, An Garda Síochána, gave an update on the process of draft update of the “2003 Good Practices Guidelines”. A Working Group has been set up with representatives from the Departments and Agencies involved in Barnahus, which will also include representatives from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution and the National Disability Authority. The Working Group will focus on doing a first draft review of the Guidelines, which offer a framework to conduct video-recorded specialist interviewing of children and other vulnerable group of people so that the video-recording may be accepted as evidence-in-chief in Court.
The “Record of Processing Activities (RoPA)” supports the data protection and data sharing processes of Barnahus in Ireland, identifying the relevant controller, categories of data subjects, who personal data is shared with, the legal basis for processing, and data related to criminal offences.
Experts involved in the drafting of these reports presented and shared key findings and recommendations to the four agencies involved in the implementation of Barnahus (CHI, HSE, Tusla, An Garda Síochána), with each report presentation followed by discussions with stakeholders.
Calls for Tenders
