The Vetting and Barring Scheme is a new computer system that will eventually affect the entire children's workforce. From October 2009 the law will require the registration of all those who engage in 'regulated activity' - that is to say, those who work or volunteer with children and vulnerable adults.
The aim is to hold not only information about criminal convictions, but also 'soft intelligence' relating to the unsuitability of individuals to work with children.
According to the Independent Safeguarding Authority, which has been set up to run the scheme, gossip and rumour will not be factors in determining whether someone poses a risk. Where the authority considers barring a person it will be legally bound to share its information, and that person will have the opportunity to make representations to have the decision reversed.
The new scheme has come about as a result of the Bichard Inquiry following the Soham murders in 2002. One of the key issues the inquiry looked at was whether the way employers check the background of job applicants was reliable enough.
How is 'regulated activity' defined?
- Any activity which involves contact with children or vulnerable adults and is of a specified nature (such as teaching, training, care supervision, advice, treatment or transport)
- Any activity allowing contact with children or vulnerable adults in a specified place (such as schools, nurseries or children's homes)
- Fostering and childcare
- Certain defined 'office holders' (such as a local authority director of children's services, trustees of children's charities, school governors)
- No distinction is made between paid and voluntary work.
What is the role of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA)?
The ISA is a non-departmental body set up to operate the Vetting and Barring Scheme. Its aim is to prevent unsuitable people from working with children and vulnerable adults. It will do this by placing people on one of two ISA Barred Lists. The ISA will make the decisions about who should be on those lists.
The ISA will work in partnership with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).
ISA's decision-making process will be based on a range of information from the police and referrals from employers, regulatory bodies and other agencies.
The ISA will consider:
- offences - convictions or cautions
- evidence of inappropriate behaviour
- evidence of behaviour that is likely to harm a child or vulnerable adult.
What will be the impact on staffing?
- Staff cannot refuse to become ISA registered and still carry out regulated activity.
- If an existing member of staff is barred, they must be moved from regulated activity immediately.
- Unsubstantiated or malicious allegations will not be enough to get a member of staff barred
- Individuals may make representations against being barred in most circumstances.
Under the Scheme, what will be employers' duties?
- Employers, professionals and regulatory bodies, and child/adult protection teams in local authorities must refer information to the ISA in certain circumstances.
- In other circumstances, employers must refer information regarding an individual's conduct to the ISA.
- Parents/private employers not involved in regulated activity should go to a statutory agency who can investigate and refer if appropriate (such as social services or the police).
- The ISA will inform professional/regulatory bodies if it bars someone, so that their professional registration can be reviewed.
What will it cost to register?
Individuals in paid employment will pay £64 when applying for registration with the scheme.
Those involved in unpaid voluntary activity will pay no application fee.
Students undertaking vocational courses (medicine, nursing, teaching etc) will have to pay the application fee.
Timetable for scheme introduction
- From October 2009 the wider definition of 'regulated activity' will be brought into force.
- Extended barring arrangements will apply to a wider range of activities and in a wider range of settings, including NHS settings and the prison service.
- Providers of regulated activities are duty-bound to notify ISA of relevant information, whereby individuals who pose a threat can be identified and barred.
- In the case of new criminal offences, it becomes a crime for a barred individual to seek or undertake work with vulnerable groups, and for employers to knowingly take them on.
- Applications for ISA registration for new entrants to the workforce and those moving jobs will start in July 2010.
- The phased roll-out is expected to run over a five-year period.
How the scheme will operate online
- The status of individuals will be continually updated on receipt of new information, such as new convictions or referrals from employers.
- Employers will be notified, where they have registered an interest, if the status of their employee changes.
- ISA registration is fully portable.
What improvements will there be once the new system is phased in?
- The new register replaces the former lists - the Protection of Children Act (POCA) list, the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA), List 99 and the court-imposed disqualification order regime will no longer exist.Instead, there will be one list of those barred from working with vulnerable adults.
- Pre-employment vetting - checks will take place before an individual is able to start work. The scheme will make sure that those who are known to present a risk of harm to children and/or vulnerable adults cannot enter the relevant workforce in the first place.
- Continuous checking - when new information, such as a conviction or caution or a referral from an employer, becomes known about an individual who is already registered with the ISA, the Authority will review its original decision not to bar.
- Where an employer has already checked on an employee's status with the ISA, that employer will be notified automatically if their employee's status changes.
- Workforce coverage - the scope of the Vetting and Barring Scheme will be wider than current arrangements. It is estimated that around 11 million individuals will have to pass through the ISA checking process in the first five years.
- A reduction in bureaucracy - once people have registered with the ISA, future employers will be able to check their status online, free of charge.
- Wide range of sources of information - as with the current arrangements, certain organisations will have a legal duty to refer relevant information about individuals to the ISA. Under the terms of the new vetting service, other employers, service providers and individuals will have the opportunity to refer information.
Would the new vetting service bar someone like Ian Huntley?
One of the key features of the Huntley case in Soham was that, although his behaviour had caused concern to a number of agencies, and on a number of different occasions, no single organisation had access to a full picture or had put together those aspects of the picture that they had. The ISA says a key strength of the new scheme is that it has access to non-conviction information from different sources when building a view of an individual's unsuitability.
