Childcare workers are so fearful of accusations of abuse that national guidelines are needed to tell them when and how they can touch a child, a conference was told yesterday.
Dr Harry Ferguson of University College Cork said that "some children's centres appear to have responded to the awareness of risk of physical and sexual abuse of children and the fear of false allegations by banning touch in the care of children altogether".
"This may resolve one problem - the fear of abuse and false allegations - but it is not good practice as it negates the intimate needs of children - to be held, reassured, cared for and nurtured," he told the annual conference of the Irish Association of Care Workers meeting in Cork.
"A national code of practice is required from the Department of Health and health boards outlining what is appropriate physical contact between children and staff."
But this should not be taken to extremes, he warned. "Are we going to codify every gesture and move that it is legitimate for childcare workers to make?"
He did not want a situation "where you reach for a handbook to see how you can respond to the immediate needs of a crying child for comfort".
Dr Ferguson said recent research in children's homes in Ireland found that in some cases staff are so attuned to the possibility of complaints being made by children that communication with the children has suffered.
"This stops children from feeling able to talk about the routine things they feel about the care they receive and their lives, and makes it more difficult for the really hard things to be said, such as disclosures of abuse."
Dr Ferguson complained that the long-promised inspectorate had not been set up. "There is an urgent need for a Social Services Inspectorate to be established by the Department of Health to ensure that national standards exist and are being enforced," he said. "We have been promised this for a long time, but where is it?"
It was vital that the inspectorate, when set up, took into account that childcare workers were operating in a system which had been neglected for many years, he warned.