Consultancy · Independent review
Independent safeguarding review and audit.
Something has happened, and your board needs to know what. Or nothing has happened, and you would rather find out where you stand before somebody else does. Both are reviews — some organisations call it an audit — and both end in a written account you can act on.
Two kinds
After something, or before anything.
After an incident
What happened, how it was handled, and what in the organisation allowed it. Written for a board that has to answer for it
Before an inspection
Where your safeguarding actually stands, assessed the way somebody external would assess it, while there is still time to act
Why independent matters
The point is that Michael does not work for you.
A child protection review carried out inside an organisation answers to the people it is reviewing. That is not a criticism of anyone — it is structural, and every board knows it, which is why an internal account rarely settles anything.
Michael spent fifteen years leading investigations where the finding had to survive scrutiny. A review is written the same way: what is established, what is not, and what follows.
Terms of reference
Agreed in writing first, so everybody knows what is being examined and what is not.
The work itself
Records, interviews where appropriate, and the sequence of what actually happened rather than what was assumed.
A written report
Findings, and recommendations you can act on. Yours to publish or hold, as your governance requires.
Who you would be working with
Fifteen years leading Ireland's national child protection unit.
Senior Investigating Officer with An Garda Síochána, leading three national units: the National Child Protection Unit, the Sexual Crime Management Unit and the Online Child Exploitation Unit. Ireland's National Expert to Interpol and Europol on child safeguarding.
Safeguarding policy developed with Tusla, the HSE and three government departments. M.Sc. in Child Protection and Welfare, Trinity College Dublin. More about Michael
do what you love, safely
Organisations Michael has worked with
Tusla
HSE
United Nations
Interpol
European Commission
GAA
Scouting Ireland
Teaching Council
Dublin Rape Crisis Centre
CARI
Irish Red Cross
DSPCA
St John Ambulance
UCD
Trinity College Dublin
ERA — Academy of European LawAnswers
Questions we're asked most.
Something has happened. What do we do first?
Your reporting obligations under the Children First Act 2015 come first and are not affected by any review — if a concern reaches the threshold it goes to Tusla, and to An Garda Síochána where required. A review looks at what happened and how it was handled; it never replaces reporting, and it should never delay it.
Will an independent review be published?
That is your decision and your governance. Some organisations publish in full, some publish findings, some hold the report for the board. Michael writes it so that it can withstand publication either way.
Can you review our safeguarding before anything goes wrong?
Yes, and it is the better time. A review before an inspection or a funding application tells you where you stand while there is still room to act on it.
How long does an independent review take?
It depends entirely on scope, which is agreed in the terms of reference. A single incident in a small organisation is weeks; a whole-organisation review across many units is longer. The first conversation establishes which you need.
Related reading: the Children First Act 2015 explained and what a child safeguarding statement must contain.
The first conversation
Thirty minutes. No cost.
Tell Michael what you have and what you are worried about. He will tell you what you actually need, including if that is nothing.
- What the Children First Act 2015 requires of your organisation specifically
- Where the gaps are in what you already have
- What it would cost, and what it would not