A 40-year veteran of Samaritans has resigned over the organisation’s decision to relax its core principle of confidentiality to comply with new child protection legislation.
Historian and biographer Anthony Jordan, one of the longest-serving volunteers with Samaritans, resigned last month in protest at the removal of the guarantee of confidentiality for callers in situations where child abuse issues may arise.
Samaritans, which provides a 24-hour telephone helpline for people in emotional distress, says the change has been made necessary by new legislation, yet to be implemented, to make reporting of child abuse allegations mandatory. The change to the charity's rules will apply in the Republic but not in Britain or Northern Ireland.
Policy change
In his resignation letter, Mr Jordan says he took the decision to resign after the organisation decided to drop its core value of confidentiality and subsequently stymied attempts by him to question the policy change.
He claims the decision, taken at a board of trustees meeting in London in November 2011, was presented to Irish members as a fait accompli. “That meeting was told that the decision had to be taken at the meeting and, so urgent was it, there had not been time to consult all the directors in the Republic.
“It was acknowledged that the legislation impending in the Republic was still not published so that its precise demands were unclear. Still, the meeting was urged to make its decision there and then.”
The Children First Bill was published last April and has still to go through the Oireachtas, he points out.
The meeting agreed unanimously “to provide confidential support to children but report to the HSE any contacts (from either adults or children) where it appears a child is experiencing specific situations such as those that can cause them serious harm from themselves or others”.
‘Significant implications’
It was noted that the decision had “significant implications” for the whole organisation and it was agreed that the decision “not be the subject of pre-Council discussions with the wider organisation”.
The meeting was also told that the ability of Samaritans to work with the HSE “to achieve adjustments that may be of benefit to our callers” depended on the decision.
Mr Jordan says he attempted to have an EGM convened to discuss the matter, and was advised to write a paper, which was circulated internally. In mid-2014, he re-activated his request for a meeting but after this was refused he resigned.
The letter accuses the organisation of “putting money ahead of the principle of confidentiality”. Samaritans received almost €2 million from the HSE between 2010 and 2014.
Samaritans says the November 2011 decision was an “in principle” decision, which has yet to be implemented because the legislation was not published.
