Child protection watchdog work in jeopardy due to funding cuts

Child protection watchdog work in jeopardy due to funding cuts

The head of the independent watchdog ensuring compliance with child safeguarding procedures has warned that sharp pandemic-related funding cuts make its work “unsustainable”.

Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church told The Irish Catholic this week that cuts of 40% in Church funding were stretching the body to its limit.

“It’s actually not sustainable. Unless we get funding [restored] we won’t be able to keep up with the demand”, she said.

Speaking as the NBSCCCI annual report was released, she insisted that the board “can’t sustain the current level of work on current resources. The work [of safeguarding] needs to be funded properly and on a multi-year basis”.

Ms Devlin warned that the tremendous work that has gone on cannot be jeopardised. “There has been a huge change in mindset around safeguarding, and there is a huge group of volunteers in the Church who deserve so much credit…but we can never afford to let our guard down,” she said.

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