<p>
	Garda&iacute; might not have removed two children from their Roma families if they had access to health records, according to the Ombudsman for Children&rsquo;s report.</p>
<p>
	Emily Logan said it was &ldquo;critical&rdquo; that systems were put in place which would allow garda&iacute; &ldquo;ready access&rdquo; to information on children held by social workers and public health nurses.</p>
<p>
	The ombudsman was also heavily critical in her report of the failure of Garda management to prioritise child protection, describing the lack of guidance to members on emergency care orders as &ldquo;unacceptable&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	In the recommendations in her 118-page report, published on Tuesday evening, she said garda&iacute; should have &ldquo;enhanced access&rdquo; to information held by both the new Child and Family Agency and the HSE with respect to children whose identities are called into question.</p>
<p>
	Specifically, she said consideration should be given to allow garda&iacute; access to the CFA&rsquo;s National Child Care Information System. This should be complemented by the development of a national out-of-hours social work service. This issue has been highlighted in successive inquiries into the deaths of children.</p>
<p>
	The Roma report said garda&iacute; should develop a protocol with public health nursing teams too.</p>
<p>
	Ms Logan said a &ldquo;significant amount of information&rdquo; was held by social workers and public health nurses about the two Roma families and the children that were removed &mdash; Child A in Athlone and Child T in Tallaght.</p>
<p>
	But she said there were &ldquo;impediments&rdquo; to garda&iacute; accessing that information. She said in the case of Child A, garda&iacute; were undertaking enquiries &ldquo;after ordinary business hours and were therefore unable to make contact&rdquo; with HSE social workers.</p>
<p>
	In the case of Child T, garda&iacute; did make contact with social workers but not with public health nurses, which could have provided information on Child T.</p>
<p>
	She said it was &ldquo;critical&rdquo; garda&iacute; would have access to this information.</p>
<p>
	The ombudsman criticised Garda management:</p>
<p>
	- The lack of guidance in Garda protocols on the operation of Section 12 (emergency care) powers was &ldquo;unacceptable&rdquo;.</p>
<p>
	- The management approach and policy guidance in child protection was &ldquo;not commensurate&rdquo; with the &ldquo;very onerous responsibility&rdquo; borne by members on the ground.</p>
<p>
	- There was no overall Garda child protection strategy.</p>
<p>
	In situations where a child&rsquo;s identity is called into question, she said guidance should include: what factors members should consider; the undertaking of discreet enquiries; when to call to the child&rsquo;s home and the holding of case conferences.</p>
<p>
	She called for annual reports on the use of Section 12 powers and independent oversight of its use.</p>
<p>
	<a href="http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/gardai-need-ready-access-to-child-data-274168.html">http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/gardai-need-ready-access-to-child-data-274168.html</a></p>
