New Director for Safeguarding and Child Protection appointed
The Archdiocese of Dublin has appointed a new Diocesan Director of the Safeguarding and Child Protection Service, Mr. Andrew Fagan.
He replaces Mr. Phil Garland who was director of Child Protection in the Diocese since the service was set up in 2003. Mr. Garland is now assistant national director HSE, for children and family services.
The Office for Safeguarding and Child Protection in Dublin has a staff of eight people. It is responsible for the implementation of good safeguarding practices and child protection procedures throughout the Archdiocese. This includes receiving and reporting complaints of child abuse by priests, providing support for victims of abuse, providing training and support to each of the Dioceses 199 parishes to prevent children being harmed, as well monitoring and supporting those accused of abuse.
The Diocesan Service works closely with the Gardai and the Health Service Executive. As well as serving the parishes of the Archdiocese it supports the Diocesan Agencies, Crosscare, Catholic Youth Care and Accord in all aspects of safeguarding and child protection.
From Naas in Co. Kildare, Andrew Fagan trained as a social worker in Queen’s University Belfast and did post graduate training in child protection in Trinity College Dublin. He has worked with state child protection services here and in Northern Ireland and has managed residential services for children.
In 2000 he was appointed to the Social Services Inspectorate within the Department of Health, where he was responsible for carrying out inspections of state residential and foster care services and with developing better practice and policies for the safety and welfare of children in care.
In 2007 he transferred with the Social Services Inspectorate to the new Health Information and Quality Authority taking on new responsibilities in relation to services for older people and people with disabilities. Most recently he led the development of a new set of standards for residential and foster care services for children.
Mr Fagan takes over a service which is responsible for the ongoing training of over 2,000 parish volunteers and diocesan personnel who have participated in the Keeping Safe Programme – every parish in the Diocese of Dublin has a trained child protection representative in place. Over 7,000 people in the Diocese, clergy, staff and volunteers have been vetted by the Garda.
