Barriers or Pathways? Aiding Retrospective Disclosures of Childhood Sexual Abuse to Child Protection Services

Under Irish child protection policy, adults who do come forward to disclose frequently have interactions with the state child protection services (CPS). Such interactions, known as retrospective disclosures, have been a feature of Irish child protection policy since 1999 and are defined as “disclosures byadults of abuse which took place during their childhood” (Department of Health and Children, 1999, p39). Since 1999 problematic issues and inconsistencies in practice and policy relating to the receipt, management and assessment of such disclosures by child protection services have been identified (Mooney, 2018, 2021; O’Mahony, 2020; Office of the Ombudsman, 2017; Health and Information Quality Authority (HIQA), 2018). Some of the issues identified have included delays in responding to adults who disclose (e.g. Office of the Ombudsman, 2017), potential risk posed to children due to non-assessment of alleged perpetrators (e.g. HIQA, 2015), a perceived lack of expertise in child protection agencies when responding to adults who come forward (e.g. Mooney, 2021), and the lack of a robust legal basis upon which CPS can conduct assessments of such disclosures (O’Mahony, 2020; Mooney, 2018). At present, key stakeholders in the field of therapy, advocacy, and support highlight that these issues may be further compounded by recent developments in respect of mandatory reporting and data protection (Baker, 2021). This study sought to explore these contemporary experiences of engagement with CPS.