Social Workers & the Gardai

Social work services in Ireland are delivered by teams of social workers. Social Workers work with individuals, families and groups experiencing social and emotional difficulties. The aim of social work is to help people achieve change and make decisions to improve their quality of life. Social Workers help to identify options and support steps to advance social policy and service delivery.

Services include:

Family Support Services which include prevention and early intervention initiatives.
Targeted Services which respond to children who have been harmed or have not recieved adequate care.
Support and advice is also provided for adults who wish to disclose abuse which they have experienced in their past.
Child Protection and Social Work Services are in place to provide frontline response services to children who are not receiving adequate care and protection.
A wide range of Child Care and family support services are provided by the HSE nationwide.

Each health board has a duty social worker who is available to meet with or talk on the phone to person wanting to make a child protection concern. In the even of an emergency, a report may be made to the Gardai.

The health board is responsible for the assessment and management of child protection concerns. As each case is different, we couldn’t really tell you what would happen if you were to contact the Social Worker in your area, but it is their responsibility to make sure children are safe.

The Gardai have responsibility to investigate alleged offenses of child abuse. This means that if you are in danger or if you know of a child who is in immediate danger, you can ring the Gardai and they are responsible for looking into what you have to say. The Gardai are there to help children who are being hurt or who are not living in a safe place.

Click on the links below to find out more:

Contacting a Social Worker

Contacting the Garda