The debate on improving systems to protect children should include public health nurses who provide a universal service to all children and are ideally placed to identify and support vulnerable families according to Fine Gael Galway Senator, Fidelma Healy Eames.

“The impact public health nurses have, calling to every home in the country with babies and young children, is completely under-estimated. They see the real family situation first-hand and are in a prime position to pin-point where families are having difficulty meeting children’s needs. However, if they are to play a much needed role in ensuring that child abuse and neglect incidences, such as we’ve seen through the Roscommon case, are not repeated, they need to be given the tools to make their role of protecting children more effective.

“Speaking to me in Leinster House yesterday, Mary O Dowd, Professional Development Officer with the Institute of Community Health Nursing said: ‘Investing in Public Health Nursing has been proven to both reduce the incidence and ensure the early identification and support of vulnerable families’.

“The systems that need to be urgently put in place to improve early identification and support for families include:

•        A mandatory and continuous education programme on both child health and child protection for public health nurses;
•        A comprehensive uniform system for recording their visits that can be shared if families move;
•        An evidence based assessment tool that would identify and rate the risks factors and ensure early referral to support services;
•        Where concerns persist about a family that the public health nurse is included in the ongoing monitoring of the family.

“Not maximising the important resource that the public health nurse provides to our State, as a means of protecting our children, is short-sighted, foolish and detrimental to the well-being of our children.”