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Boards to set up registers on child abuse cases and place
responsibility with their area executive teams to co-ordinate this
work. A number of the matters covered, such as stressing the
importance of good interdisciplinary communication, remain just as
relevant today. The 1975 guidance was amplified in 1978 under the
heading 'Child Abuse', stressing the need for vigilance in detecting
'emotional or mental abuse'. It also gave stronger advice on the use
of child abuse registers, stressing that they should only contain details
of cases where it is considered children remain at risk. This was the
first sign of the subsequent move that would take place from child
abuse registers to child protection registers.
Even by 1980 the emphasis of child protection work was centred on a
restricted view of abuse of children. At this stage there was still
limited understanding of the effects of physical and, even more so,
emotional abuse on children. There appeared to be little awareness
of sexual abuse. The history of child abuse emerges as a series of
steps in beliefs and perceptions as to what adults will and can
perpetrate on vulnerable and powerless children. It is possible to
trace the incredulity of professionals and public alike to the growing
range of abuse and by the type of perpetrator. Whilst the public still
mainly wants to believe that abuse is caused by adult male
paedophiles, this accounts for only a small proportion. Perpetrators
are also fathers, brothers, uncles, friends, occasionally mothers and
other women and sometimes peers of the same age or a little older.
Northern Ireland has been largely free of the cases of severe physical
abuse leading to the deaths of children and subsequent inquiries that
occurred in England. However, it was, of course, the setting for a
major case of complex abuse by a number of residential workers in
the Kincora boy's hostel which had gone unchecked until being
uncovered in 1979. It became apparent that serious sexual abuse of
children had been allowed to occur in that hostel for adolescent
boys, and in a number of other residential facilities, for a number of
years. These events forcefully brought to light the vulnerability of
children in substitute care and resulted in procedures to try to recruit
and retain a higher calibre of staff. It was also crucial to prevent
unsuitable adults working with children and to ensure much closer
monitoring and inspection of residential homes.
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