Service and Safeguarding Commitment

All Kinds of Minds Assessments is a specialist Clinical Psychology-led practice providing neurodevelopmental, learning, and cognitive assessment to children and young people. Services are provided by prearranged appointment from 1st Floor, 10 Stephen Street, Rathquarter, Sligo, F91 V2XR. The practice provides privately commissioned services and, separately, assessments commissioned by the H.S.E.

For the purposes of this Statement, a child is a person under 18 years of age. All Kinds of Minds is committed to safeguarding every child and young person who engages with the practice and to providing a professional environment in which their safety, dignity, welfare, autonomy, privacy, communication, and individual support needs are respected. Safeguarding is understood as an integral part of clinical practice rather than as a process that begins only after an allegation or concern has arisen.

The assessment services provided through All Kinds of Minds constitute relevant services for the purposes of the Children First Act 2015. This Statement has therefore been prepared in accordance with the Children First Act 2015 and with due regard to Children First: National Guidance for the Protection and Welfare of Children 2017, including the subsequent national guidance concerning online safety and retrospective disclosures of childhood abuse. H.S.E.-commissioned work is additionally undertaken within the safeguarding and child-protection requirements applicable to that commissioned service, including the current H.S.E. National Child Protection and Welfare Policy and associated guidance.

The purpose of this Statement is to describe the service, the principal safeguarding risks identified through the practice's Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment, and the principles, procedures, and controls used to ensure, as far as practicable, that children and young people are safe from harm while availing of the service. A more detailed Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment is maintained as part of the practice's governance documentation and is available where required.

Safeguarding Principles

All Kinds of Minds approaches children and young people as individuals whose rights, dignity, developmental stage, neurodevelopmental profile, communication style, sensory needs, emotional experience, cultural context, strengths, and support needs should be understood and respected. Children are given developmentally appropriate information about the assessment process and are supported to participate meaningfully rather than being expected simply to comply with adult direction.

A child or young person may ask questions, request a break, seek support from an accompanying adult, communicate discomfort, or indicate that they wish an assessment activity to stop. Distress, refusal, shutdown, movement, sensory regulation, reduced speech, atypical communication, or other ways of expressing difficulty are considered within the child's individual context rather than being treated as misconduct. Reasonable adjustments are made where appropriate while preserving the integrity and safety of the assessment.

Psychological assessment through the practice does not involve punishment, coercion, intimate care, or physical restraint. Where a child cannot continue safely or meaningfully despite appropriate explanation, support, and adjustment, the relevant activity may be paused, adapted where clinically appropriate, or discontinued. These principles apply across privately commissioned and H.S.E.-commissioned work.

Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment

All Kinds of Minds has completed a service-specific Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment in accordance with the Children First Act 2015. The assessment considers the potential for statutory harm to a child while availing of the service and the possibility that an existing or emerging safeguarding concern might not be recognised, communicated, reported, or managed appropriately. It is distinct from the practice's management of ordinary clinical, diagnostic, premises, health-and-safety, data-protection, or operational risks where no child-protection dimension arises.

The safeguarding assessment considers the complete service pathway rather than direct assessment appointments alone. This includes referral and intake, consent and information gathering, parent or caregiver consultation, direct child assessment, multidisciplinary work, communication with other professionals, remote components, feedback, report preparation, information sharing, and case closure. The principal safeguarding risks and the controls used to manage them are summarised below.

Risk of Harm from a Clinician or Other Person Working through the Practice

Assessment necessarily involves professional access to children and young people and may include periods of individual work with a clinician. This creates an inherent safeguarding responsibility because clinicians occupy positions of trust, exercise professional authority, and may have access to highly sensitive developmental, family, and clinical information. Potential risks include abuse, exploitation, grooming, inappropriate conduct, professional-boundary violations, coercive use of clinical authority, or relevant work being undertaken by a person whose professional suitability or safeguarding requirements have not been established.

The practice manages these risks through clearly defined professional roles and boundaries, informed consent, attention to the child's ongoing participation, verification of professional qualifications and professional standing, appropriate Garda vetting, annual Children First training, appointment-only working, defined communication and information-sharing arrangements, and formal procedures for responding to concerns about a person working through the practice. Professional boundaries apply equally to in-person and electronic contact, and informal or personal social-media relationships are not used to provide clinical services.

Shaun Frandsen and Tina Usborne both maintain current H.S.E. Garda vetting and complete Children First training annually. Any additional clinician, employee, contractor, trainee, student, volunteer, or other person engaged in relevant work in the future will be required to meet the professional, suitability, safeguarding, confidentiality, training, and Garda-vetting requirements appropriate to that role before undertaking relevant unsupervised work with children.

Risk of Harm from Another Service User, Visitor, or Member of the Public

Although All Kinds of Minds is not a group, residential, childcare, or open-access service, children and young people may encounter other children, parents, caregivers, visitors, or members of the public during arrival, departure, or limited overlap between appointments. Potential safeguarding risks include inappropriate contact, threatening or coercive behaviour, unauthorised access to a child, or an unsafe accompaniment or collection arrangement.

The practice operates by prearranged appointment and schedules appointments in a way that protects privacy and minimises unnecessary overlap between families. Children and young people attend for defined professional appointments rather than remaining at the premises outside the assessment process, and caregiver arrangements are considered according to age, developmental needs, consent, and the nature of the appointment. Where an adult's behaviour creates a genuine safety or safeguarding concern, an appointment may be paused or ended and appropriate action taken. This is distinguished from ordinary child dysregulation, sensory distress, emotional difficulty, refusal, or neurodevelopmentally related behaviour, which are approached clinically rather than treated as misconduct or a safeguarding threat.

Unauthorised photography, audio recording, or video recording during assessment appointments is not permitted. This protects the privacy of children and families and reduces the risk that assessment interactions or sensitive information might be recorded or disseminated outside the agreed professional context.

Risk that a Child-Protection or Welfare Concern is Not Recognised, Acted Upon, or Reported

Safeguarding information may emerge at any stage of an assessment and may not take the form of an explicit disclosure. Relevant information may arise through referral records, developmental history, information provided by parents or guardians, school or professional reports, questionnaires, direct observation, previous clinical records, electronic communication, professional liaison, or something communicated by the child or young person.

The practice therefore applies its child-protection and welfare procedures across the entire assessment pathway. Information is considered for safeguarding significance regardless of the form in which it is received. Particular attention is given to avoiding diagnostic overshadowing. Behavioural change, avoidance, emotional dysregulation, shutdown, reduced communication, or other indicators of possible harm are not assumed to arise solely from Autism, A.D.H.D., sensory needs, anxiety, or another neurodevelopmental or emotional presentation where the wider information also raises a possible protection or welfare concern.

Clinicians undertaking relevant work understand their individual responsibilities as Mandated Persons. Where a statutory reporting threshold is reached, the required report is made to Tusla. Where information does not reach the statutory threshold for a mandated report but nevertheless gives rise to a reasonable child-protection or welfare concern, reporting in accordance with Children First National Guidance is considered. Advice may be sought from Tusla where the reporting threshold is uncertain, but consultation does not delay action where a child may be at immediate risk.

Risk that a Child is Unable to Recognise, Communicate, or Report Harm

Children attending a neurodevelopmental assessment service may differ substantially in spoken language, communication style, developmental level, emotional awareness, sensory processing, confidence with unfamiliar adults, and their ability to recognise or describe an unsafe experience. Some children may communicate distress indirectly, need additional processing time, speak less when under stress, or find it particularly difficult to communicate a concern where the person involved is a parent, caregiver, family member, or another trusted adult.

The practice does not therefore depend upon a fluent or conventional verbal disclosure before a safeguarding concern can be recognised. Clinicians attend to verbal and non-verbal communication, behavioural or emotional change, avoidance, distress, interaction patterns, changes from the child's usual presentation, and other contextually meaningful information. Communication is adapted appropriately to the child's age, developmental profile, and individual needs, and reasonable adjustments are used where these support the child's ability to participate and express themselves.

A disclosure or possible safeguarding indicator is taken seriously without the assessment becoming an investigation into whether alleged abuse occurred. The clinician's role is to listen appropriately, avoid unnecessary or leading questioning, record relevant information objectively, consider immediate safety and safeguarding obligations, and refer the matter through the appropriate statutory process where required. The absence of a conventional disclosure is not treated as evidence that no concern exists.

Risk that Children First Responsibilities are Not Implemented Consistently

Safeguarding systems can fail through organisational inconsistency even where individual clinicians understand their professional duties. Relevant risks include policies becoming outdated, review dates being missed, a new person beginning work before safeguarding requirements have been completed, a Mandated Persons record not being maintained, safeguarding training or vetting not remaining current, an incident failing to result in organisational learning, or additional H.S.E. requirements not being implemented consistently in commissioned work.

Safeguarding is therefore embedded within the practice's clinical-governance arrangements rather than managed informally from case to case. All Kinds of Minds maintains this Child Safeguarding Statement, a detailed Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment, a Child Protection and Welfare P.P.P.G., procedures concerning Mandated Persons and the Relevant Person, Garda-vetting and Children First training records, appropriate consent and confidentiality procedures, and the additional safeguarding and compliance documentation required for H.S.E.-commissioned work.

Safeguarding incidents, allegations, significant near misses, repeated concerns, or identified failures of a control are considered for wider organisational learning. Where a weakness is identified, the practice considers whether the relevant procedure, training, documentation, service arrangement, or other control should be changed rather than limiting the response to the individual case.

Risk of Harm in the Digital Environment

Safeguarding responsibilities apply to digital as well as in-person activity. The practice uses electronic systems for referrals, consent, questionnaires, professional communication, records, information exchange, and some remote parent-focused or feedback work. Potential safeguarding risks include inappropriate direct communication, blurred professional boundaries, a child overhearing sensitive adult discussion during a remote appointment, unauthorised recording or dissemination of assessment material, misuse of social media, use of an unsuitable remote format, or an information-security incident that creates a child-protection consequence.

Professional communication takes place through legitimate practice channels and remains subject to the same boundaries that apply in person. The practice does not provide clinical care to children through personal social-media accounts or informal personal messaging relationships. Email, online forms, portals, and other electronic communication are not continuously monitored emergency or safeguarding services.

Some parent consultation, developmental-history, questionnaire, or feedback work may take place remotely where appropriate. Parent-focused discussions may involve sensitive developmental, family, or clinical information and should therefore take place in a sufficiently private environment where a child is not present or able reasonably to overhear unless the child's participation has been specifically agreed. Direct assessment components are undertaken in person where required by the nature of the assessment or the applicable assessment pathway.

Procedures Supporting this Child Safeguarding Statement

The Children First Act 2015 requires the Child Safeguarding Statement to identify the procedures through which the service gives practical effect to its safeguarding responsibilities. All Kinds of Minds maintains procedures and governance arrangements covering:

• management of the safeguarding risks identified through the Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment;

• management of concerns or allegations concerning a person working through the practice in relation to a child availing of the service;

• selection and engagement of any person who may undertake relevant work with children, including suitability and applicable Garda-vetting requirements;

• provision of safeguarding information, instruction, and Children First training to persons undertaking relevant work;

• reporting of child-protection and welfare concerns to Tusla by Mandated Persons and others, as applicable;

• maintenance of an up-to-date record of Mandated Persons undertaking relevant work through the practice and communication of their responsibilities; and

• appointment and identification of the Relevant Person for the purposes of the Child Safeguarding Statement.

These procedures are contained within or supported by the practice's Child Protection and Welfare P.P.P.G. and associated safeguarding-governance documentation. They are reviewed alongside this Statement and the underlying Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment so that the public Statement reflects the procedures actually operating within the service.

Mandated Persons, Designated Liaison Person, and Relevant Person

The clinicians currently undertaking direct assessment work through All Kinds of Minds are Shaun Frandsen, Chartered Clinical Psychologist, and Tina Usborne, C.O.R.U.-registered Speech and Language Therapist. Both are Mandated Persons for the purposes of the Children First Act 2015 and retain individual responsibility for understanding and fulfilling the statutory reporting and mandated-assistance obligations applicable to them.

Shaun Frandsen, Chartered Clinical Psychologist and Clinical Lead, is the Designated Liaison Person for child-protection and welfare matters within All Kinds of Minds. The Designated Liaison Person provides a clear internal point of responsibility for safeguarding governance and consultation; however, this role does not remove or replace the individual legal responsibilities of another Mandated Person.

Shaun Frandsen is also the Relevant Person appointed for the purposes of the Child Safeguarding Statement and is the first point of contact for questions concerning this Statement and its implementation.

Shaun Frandsen
Chartered Clinical Psychologist
All Kinds of Minds Assessments
1st Floor, 10 Stephen Street
Rathquarter
Sligo
F91 V2XR
contact@allkindsofminds.ie

The practice contact route is not an emergency safeguarding service and should not be used instead of contacting Tusla or An Garda Síochána where immediate safeguarding action is required.

Reporting Child-Protection and Welfare Concerns

Clinical confidentiality is fundamental to professional practice but is not absolute. Information may be disclosed where this is necessary to fulfil a statutory reporting obligation, protect a child, comply with Children First, respond to a lawful safeguarding process, or meet another applicable legal obligation. Consent to ordinary information sharing is sought where required, but refusal of consent by a parent, guardian, or young person does not prevent a safeguarding disclosure where reporting is required or otherwise lawfully justified.

A Mandated Person must report to Tusla where the statutory threshold for a mandated report is met. Information that does not meet that threshold may nevertheless warrant a report where it gives rise to a reasonable child-protection or welfare concern under Children First National Guidance. Where appropriate, a parent or guardian will ordinarily be informed that a report is being made and why. This may not occur where informing them could place the child at further risk, impair Tusla's ability to assess the concern, or create a relevant risk to the person making the report.

Where a child may be in immediate danger and Tusla cannot be contacted, An Garda Síochána may be contacted without delay. The clinicians will also cooperate with a lawful request from Tusla for mandated assistance where the statutory requirements are met.

Where an adult discloses abuse experienced during their own childhood, the information is considered in accordance with the current Children First guidance concerning retrospective disclosures, including whether the information gives rise to a concern about a present or future risk to a child. Safeguarding information is documented objectively and securely and is shared only to the extent necessary and lawful for the relevant safeguarding purpose.

Allegations or Concerns Relating to a Clinician or Other Person Working through the Practice

Any allegation or reasonable concern that a child may have been harmed by a clinician, employee, contractor, trainee, student, volunteer, or other person acting through the practice is treated as a safeguarding matter. Professional status does not reduce the seriousness with which such information is considered, and immediate safeguarding requirements take precedence over any separate complaints, employment, contractual, disciplinary, or professional process.

The practice does not undertake its own child-protection investigation to determine whether an allegation is substantiated where statutory referral is indicated. The relevant information is recorded appropriately, the child's immediate safety is considered, and the appropriate statutory and professional processes are followed. Measures necessary to safeguard the child or other children may be taken while an external process is ongoing, with due regard to fair procedures and the rights of all involved.

Where a concern relates personally to Shaun Frandsen, she will not investigate or adjudicate upon that concern in her capacity as Clinical Lead or Designated Liaison Person. The matter will be managed through the appropriate external safeguarding route, including Tusla or An Garda Síochána as applicable. Where the matter concerns H.S.E.-commissioned work, the applicable H.S.E. safeguarding and notification requirements will also be followed.

Garda Vetting, Children First Training, and Professional Suitability

All Kinds of Minds takes reasonable steps to ensure that every person undertaking relevant work with children is professionally and personally suitable for that work. Shaun Frandsen and Tina Usborne maintain current H.S.E. Garda vetting and complete Children First training annually. Appropriate evidence is retained within the practice's safeguarding-governance records and renewed or updated as required.

Any additional person engaged in relevant work in the future will be required to satisfy the professional, safeguarding, confidentiality, training, and Garda-vetting requirements appropriate to their role before undertaking relevant unsupervised work with children. The practice will also verify appropriate professional qualifications, registration or membership where applicable, competence for the proposed work, and any supervision arrangements required by that person's role.

H.S.E.-Commissioned Assessments

The same core safeguarding principles apply whether an assessment is privately commissioned or commissioned by the H.S.E. H.S.E.-commissioned work is additionally subject to the child-protection, safeguarding, clinical-governance, information-management, training, audit, reporting, and notification requirements applying to the commissioned service. Where a safeguarding concern arises during H.S.E.-commissioned work, the clinician's independent Children First and other legal responsibilities are followed without delay. Any additional H.S.E. notification or governance requirement applicable to the case is followed in addition to, rather than instead of, the appropriate statutory safeguarding response. The practice also maintains the Children First governance and assurance arrangements applicable to commissioned work, including required training evidence, safeguarding documentation, and H.S.E. Children First implementation, and compliance self-audit arrangements.

Consent, Confidentiality, and Safeguarding Information

Consent and safeguarding are related but distinct professional responsibilities. Children, young people, parents, and guardians are informed about confidentiality and its limits as part of the assessment process, and consent to ordinary information sharing is obtained where required. Safeguarding duties may nevertheless require information to be shared without consent where the applicable legal or child-protection threshold is met.

Only information reasonably necessary for the safeguarding purpose is disclosed, subject to the requirements of the relevant statutory process. Safeguarding information is recorded objectively, stored securely, and accessed or shared only by persons who have a legitimate professional, statutory, or governance reason to receive it. Further information about the handling of personal information is provided in the practice's Privacy Policy and in the confidentiality provisions within the Terms of Service.

Implementation, Availability, and Review

This Child Safeguarding Statement forms part of the practice's wider safeguarding-governance framework and is implemented alongside the detailed Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment, Child Protection and Welfare P.P.P.G., reporting procedures, Mandated Persons arrangements, professional and Garda-vetting checks, Children First training, consent and confidentiality arrangements, and H.S.E. safeguarding documentation where applicable.

The Statement is published on the All Kinds of Minds Website and displayed prominently at the practice premises. It is furnished to clinicians, subcontractors, other relevant persons undertaking work through the practice and is available on request to a parent or guardian of a child using the service, Tusla, and members of the public. The detailed Child Safeguarding Risk Assessment is retained within the practice's governance records and is available where required.

Safeguarding arrangements are reviewed as an ongoing aspect of clinical governance. The Child Safeguarding Statement and its underlying Risk Assessment are formally reviewed at least annually and sooner where there is a material change in the service, an identified safeguarding concern or control weakness, a change in personnel or service delivery, or a relevant change in legislation, Children First guidance, professional requirements, or H.S.E. safeguarding arrangements. This annual practice standard is more frequent than the statutory maximum review interval of 24 months.

Current review: 29 August 2026

Next scheduled review: 29 August 2027, or sooner where required by a material change.

Provider and Clinical Lead: Shaun Frandsen, Chartered Clinical Psychologist

Relevant Person: Shaun Frandsen, Chartered Clinical Psychologist

Designated Liaison Person: Shaun Frandsen, Chartered Clinical Psychologist

If You Have a Child-Protection or Welfare Concern

Anyone who is concerned about the safety or welfare of a child may contact Tusla directly. Where a child may be in immediate danger and Tusla cannot be contacted, An Garda Síochána should be contacted without delay.

The practice's email address, Website forms, and clinical communication systems are not monitored as emergency safeguarding services. A person should not delay contacting Tusla, An Garda Síochána, or another appropriate emergency service while waiting for a response from All Kinds of Minds.