Making retrospective disclosures of childhood sexual abuse to child protection services: What helps or hinders? – Contemporary Issues and Challenges

Child protection social work practice has experienced significant change and development in recent years. The establishment of a standalone child protection and welfare authority, Tusla, in 2014, the introduction of mandatory reporting in 2017, the formal adoption of the European General Data Protection Regulation in 2018 and many changes in policy and practice regarding how social workers assess allegations of abuse and neglect, to name but a few. Alongside this timeline we can also chart significant challenges regarding the assessment and management of disclosures by adults of sexual abuse they experienced in childhood. This paper briefly charts some of these key challenges and describes the design of an online survey study* that seeks to establish whether these developments help or hinder those coming forward.