Vetting and barring scheme put on hold as Government orders review

Voluntary registration with the VBS for new employees and people changing jobs was due to start on 26 July. This registration has now been stopped.

The scheme will now be scaled back to more common-sense levels, the Government said, amid concerns that it was disproportionate and infringed on civil liberties.

The Home Office will be in charge of remodelling the scheme with the Department for Education and the Department of Health. Details are being finalised and will be announced shortly.

Mrs May said, ‘We’ve listened to the criticisms and will respond with a scheme that has been fundamentally remodelled. Vulnerable groups must be properly protected in a way that is proportionate and sensible. This redrawing of the VBS will ensure this happens.’

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) will continue to maintain the lists of those people who are barred from working with children and adults.

Current requirements for Criminal Records Bureau checks will continue to apply. New safeguarding regulations introduced in October 2009 also remain current.

They include:

• A person who is barred from working with children or vulnerable adults will be breaking the law if they apply to work or volunteer with these groups.

• An organisation which knowingly employs someone who is barred to work with these groups will also be breaking the law.

• The ISA must also be notified by any organisation that works with children or vulnerable adults if a staff member or volunteer is dismissed, or would have been dismissed if they had not left, because they have harmed a child or vulnerable adult.

The VBS had already been scaled back by the previous Government in December following a review, so that only individuals who worked with children once a week or more, would need to register with the scheme (News, 17 December 2009).

Ian Marratt, interim director of communications at the National Childminding Association said, ‘So long as the review is swift and holds on to the positives of the existing scheme while addressing its challenges, NCMA is supportive of this decision.

‘Schemes that are designed to protect children should be straightforward and be trusted by the public.
‘Parents who use registered childminders currently do so in the confidence that their childcare provider has been checked and approved as suitable to work with children.’

Mick Brookes, general secretary of headteachers' union the NAHT, said, 'The intention of the new Government is to "take stock of the situation", as recently expressed by the Home Secretary. The NAHT would draw the minister's attention to the current dog's breakfast, created by the previous administration, of CRB checking that is hugely bureaucratic and non-transferrable between establishments.

'Moving to a single safeguarding check for multiple use cannot wait. We urge the Government to move quickly to a system that is light on bureaucracy and is appropriate and proportionate.'