Statement by the Rosminians following the publication of the Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Rosminians, by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSCCCI)

Statement by the Rosminians – 9th September 2015.

The publication today of the Review of Safeguarding Practice in the Rosminians, by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSCCCI), is an opportunity to restate our absolute commitment to safeguarding children now and into the future. We take this opportunity to thank the members of NBSCCCI, who carried out this independent review.

We Rosminians acknowledge our failures in the past, which regrettably contributed to the suffering caused to many children and families. We take this opportunity to again unreservedly apologise to all those who were abused while in our care. We commit ourselves to working with former residents and supporting them as best we can in the continuing healing process.

The review published today rightly highlights our failings in the past. It covers complaints reported from 1975 to date, and includes allegations dating back some 70 years to the 1940’s. The Review acknowledges the work we have done in more recent years, in doing all that is possible to safeguard children. We note that in its Review the National Board recognizes the work undertaken by the Rosminians in relation to safeguarding. The Review states that :

• “The safeguarding profile of the Rosminians as measured against the NBSCCCI standards in 2015 is very good, with the majority of criteria assessed as fully met”.
• “The reviewers have seen evidence that (the Rosminians) have invested time and resources in victim/survivor support at a number of levels”.

Our safeguarding practices were assessed across 48 criteria within the 7 Standards devised by the NBSCCCI. We are encouraged to note that in respect of 44 of the 48 criteria against which we were measured, our practices fully met the NBSCCCI criteria. In respect of the remaining 4 criteria, all were met partially. The Review by the NBSCCCI makes 5 recommendations (listed below). Implementation of these 5 Recommendations has already begun, and they are scheduled to be fully implemented by the end of this year. We are determined to ensure that our past failures will not be repeated and that the protection of children will continue to be an absolute priority.

We are grateful to the National Board for their work and their support. We also greatly appreciate all of those, especially survivors, who have helped us to improve our Safeguarding. We will continue to welcome all contributions to this important and valuable commitment to the wellbeing of children. We continue to strive to create communities that are safe and which respect the dignity of every person at every stage of their lives. A copy of our Safeguarding policy is available on our website: www.rosminians.ie. We again ask anyone who was abused while in our care to report to the authorities and make contact with our designated person on 01-6877014.

We also ask those who were abused to consider contacting the independent and confidential helpline, Towards Healing:

The Towards Healing Helpline is open, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 11am to 8pm – and on Friday from 11am to 6pm.

Freephone 0800 0963315 (Northern Ireland and UK)

Freephone 1800 303416 (Rep of Ireland)

Hearing impaired Text Line Number – 085 8022859.

See: www.towardshealing.ie

Recommendations:

• RECOMMENDATION 1; The Provincial needs to put in place memorandums of understanding with the diocesan safeguarding authorities about the interfaces between diocesan and Rosminian safeguarding policies.

• RECOMMENDATION 2; The Provincial should ensure that all active files, and any new files contain a chronological safeguarding narrative summarizing key milestones in the management of each case, using the NBSCCCI template.

• RECOMMENDATION 3; The Provincial should ensure that a formal communications policy is agreed, and that this is subject to ongoing review by the Safeguarding Committee.

• RECOMMENDATION 4; The Provincial should ensure that the Institute develops a policy statement based on learning from its approach to victim/survivor outreach.

• RECOMMENDATION 5; The Provincial should ensure that the Safeguarding Committee has formal terms of reference, consistent with NBSCCCI guidance.

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