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Important information – ISA Registration postponed!
"July registration halted as VBS is remodelled"
POVA - Protection Of Vulnerable Adults
ISA - Independent Safeguarding Authority
Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS)
Links
The Vetting and Barring Scheme
Latest News: 15th June 2010
ISA Registration postponed ... July registration halted as VBS is remodelled!
ISA Registration postponed
Impact on Registration
Scope of the process
What happens in the meantime?
Not sure how this affects you? - Important Contact Numbers and links
Key points of the VBS
The Scheme in context
The scope of the Scheme
Regulated activity
What is a RAP?
Specified places
Family and personal relationships
The duty to refer
Key dates of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS - Key Dates)
The frequency and intensiveness tests
Specified activities
Vulnerable adults: a definition
Children: a definition
Barring arrangements
The role of the ISA
Automatic barring
The ISA decision making process
The duty to refer information to the ISA
Further information - Contact Telephone Numbers
Latest News 15th June 2010 - ISA Registration postponed!
July registration halted as VBS is remodelled
The Home Secretary, Theresa May, has today (15th June 2010) issued a statement to the House of Commons which confirms the stated intention of the coalition Government to review the Vetting & Barring and criminal records regimes to ensure that they are scaled back to common sense levels.
The Written Ministerial Statement reads:
Tuesday, 15 June 2010
HOME OFFICE
Vetting and Barring Scheme
Secretary of State for the Home Department (Theresa May):
I am announcing today that the commencement of voluntary registration with the new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, which was due to begin on 26 July, will be brought to a halt as of today.
The Government has made clear its intention to bring the criminal records and Vetting and Barring regimes back to common sense levels. Until this remodelling has taken place, we have decided to maintain those aspects of the new Scheme which are already in place, but not to introduce further elements.
"The safety of children and vulnerable adults is of paramount importance to the new government. We will therefore maintain the current arrangements under which the Independent Safeguarding Authority is able to bar from "regulated activities" those considered unsuitable to work with children or vulnerable adults, and appropriate cases must be referred to them".
"Criminal records checks will also remain available for those eligible to receive them, and will continue to be required for certain posts where regulations are already in place".
"However it is vital that we take a measured approach in these matters. Vulnerable groups must be properly protected in a way that is proportionate and sensible. The remodelling of the VBS will ensure this happens".
The terms of reference for the remodelling of the VBS and of the criminal records regime are currently being considered and a further announcement will be made in due course.
Commenting on the decision, the Home Secretary, Theresa May said:
"The safety of children and vulnerable adults is of paramount importance to the new Government.
"However it is also vital that we take a measured approach in these matters. 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 vetting and barring scheme will ensure this happens."
Background to the Vetting & Barring Scheme (VBS)
The VBS was designed to protect children and vulnerable adults by preventing those who pose a known risk from gaining access to them through their work or volunteering. The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) now maintains two lists, one of those barred from working with children, the other of those barred from working with vulnerable adults.
Voluntary registration with the Scheme was due to start on 26 July and was being limited to new employees and job-movers working or volunteering with children or vulnerable adults.
However, as a consequence of this today's announcement, the introduction of the Scheme will be stopped to allow the Government to re-model it to common sense levels.
The process for remodelling the Vetting & Barring Scheme is currently being finalised. Further details will be announced shortly and we will provide you with this information as soon as it is available.
We recognise that this change in plans may impact on the preparations you have already undertaken, however it is essential that Ministers have the opportunity to consider the Scheme's impact and the role it should play.
During the government's remodelling process it will be business as usual for APCS and the CRB's Disclosure service.
Organisations that are engaging individuals to work in regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults should continue to use their existing safeguarding practices, including the use of enhanced CRB disclosures where these are required by law or regarded as appropriate by employers.
Although the Scheme has been stopped, changes introduced in October 2009 are still in place. (See "Key points of the VBS" further below)
Not sure how this affects you and your business?
Telephone APCS (Access Personal Checking Services)
Tel: 0845 643 1145
Or bookmark and visit this page to keep up to date with the latest developments.
CRB (Criminal Record Bureau) Customer Services team
Tel: 0870 90 90 811
The VBS contact centre Can also provide you with guidance ...
Tel: 0300 123 111
(This is a lo-call number and will only cost you the same as making a local call).
Links
The latest guidance about the other aspects of the scheme is available on the following links:
www.nidirect.gov.uk/vetting or www.businesslink.gov.uk
From 12 October 2009:
• You must not knowingly employ in a regulated activity (see below), or use as a volunteer, a barred person.
• If you employ people or use volunteers in regulated activity and subsequently dismiss or cease using them because you think they have harmed or pose a risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults, you must refer the case to the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
• If you yourself are barred from regulated activity with either children or vulnerable adults you must
not work, or seek to work, in regulated activity with that group.
• The previous lists of people barred from working with children or vulnerable adults in England,
Wales and Northern Ireland have been phased out and replaced by two new lists: the ISA Adults’ Barred List and the ISA Children’s Barred List.
While the Scheme will provide significant safeguards, it is important to remember that it is part of a wider framework of safe recruitment practices. In particular, it does not replace Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) disclosures, which will still be necessary for some positions, and nor does it remove the need for employers and voluntary organisations (RAPs) to develop and apply robust recruitment procedures, including checking identity, qualifications and references, and enquiring into career history.
If you work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults in a regulated activity or you employ
people to do so, then the Scheme affects you.
Regulated activity covers anyone working closely with children or vulnerable adults, either paid or unpaid, not part of a family or personal arrangement, on a frequent or intensive basis.
It can include, but is not limited to, any of the following:
• Teaching, training or instruction, care or supervision of children or vulnerable adults.
• Providing advice or guidance for children.
• Providing advice, guidance or assistance wholly or mainly to vulnerable adults.
• Any form of healthcare treatment or therapy provided to children or vulnerable adults.
• Driving a vehicle that is being used for the specific purpose of conveying children or vulnerable adults.
• Working in a specified place for the purpose of use by children or vulnerable adults.(See below)
A regulated activity provider (RAP) is an organisation or individual that is responsible for the management or control of regulated activity, paid or unpaid, and makes arrangements for people to work in that activity. This will usually be an employer or a voluntary organisation.
However, an individual making private contracts with a self-employed worker (for example, a parent hiring a piano teacher or a baby-sitter) is not a RAP.
Regulated activity includes anyone who works or volunteers in the following settings on a frequent
or intensive basis, and whose work brings them into contact with children or vulnerable adults:
• Schools
• Childcare premises (including nurseries)
• Residential homes for children in care
• Children’s detention centres
• Children’s centres
• Adult care homes
• Further education institutions that are wholly or mainly for the provision of full-time education for under-18s.
• Health care settings
• Adult social care settings
• Prisons
This includes catering, cleaning, administrative and maintenance workers or contractors, and their managers or supervisors, working frequently in these establishments.
Family and personal relationships
The Scheme does not apply to activities carried out in the course of family relationships or personal relationships. So, for example, it will not apply to you if you are looking after an elderly relative or a friend’s child, or if you are watching the school play or football team. In addition, the Scheme will
not apply when visiting a child in a children’s ward or a vulnerable adult in a care home, as these do not count as activities being carried out ‘for the establishment’.
If you remove someone you employ or for whom you are responsible, from regulated activity or if they leave while under investigation for allegedly causing harm or posing a risk of harm, you are legally obliged to refer this information to the ISA. Failure to do so is an offence and will carry a significant penalty. Further guidance on how to make a referral to the ISA can be found on page 20, and full guidance on the referral process can be found on the ISA website: www.isa.homeoffice.gov.uk
Key dates of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS- Key Dates)
12 October 2009
This was the Scheme’s launch date, when the definitions of regulated activity came into operation. Additionally, the offence of working in regulated activity while barred came into effect as did the offence of knowingly allowing someone to work in regulated activity while barred.
From this date, RAPs were eligible to ask for enhanced disclosures with barred list checks on anyone they are taking on in regulated activity. However a RAP was not required to ask for an enhanced disclosure if they have no reason to believe that an existing employee is barred.
The new duties on referrals came into operation on 12 October 2009. This meant that RAPs that remove anyone from regulated activity have a duty to refer information to the ISA in certain circumstances.
26 July 2010
You may apply for ISA registration from this date if you move into a new role, either paid or voluntary.
1 November 2010
This is the date on which the Scheme becomes mandatory for new workers or those moving position. If you move into regulated activity, paid or voluntary, with a new RAP, you must apply for ISA registration before starting in that role. It will be a criminal offence to work in a regulated
activity role without being ISA-registered. RAPs will have a legal duty to check that potential
new employees/volunteers are ISA-registered before allowing them to engage in regulated activity.
1 April 2011
This is the date from which people who are already working in regulated activity and have not moved into a new role with a new RAP may apply for ISA registration. This will happen in phases, usually organised by RAPs
31 July 2015
This is the final cut-off date by which everyone working in regulated activities must be ISA-registered
The frequency and intensiveness tests
Work in any of the specified settings or specified activities listed in this section is regulated activity if it is done frequently (once a week or more) or intensively (on four days or more in a single month).
The Scheme covers the following activities, which involve contact with children and/or vulnerable adults.
Teaching, training or instruction, care or supervision of children or provided wholly or mainly to vulnerable adults.
This includes people such as:
Children’s sports coaches
Guide and Scout leaders
Children’s football referees
Private tutors
Teachers
Probation officers
Prison officers
Care workers
Speech therapists
Youth workers and Sunday school teachers.
It is important to note that activities which are open to the general public (such as hobby societies, etc) will not be regulated activity. For example, a bowling club open to the general public is not carrying out regulated activity – even when older or disabled people attend. But a bowling club set up specifically for people with learning difficulties is carrying out regulated activity.
Registered childminders and foster carers are engaging in regulated activity and will be subject to all the requirements of the Scheme, regardless of how frequently they engage in registered childminding activities.
Activity, advice or guidance for children, and advice, guidance or assistance for vulnerable adults. For children, this means people whose role is wholly or mainly to provide advice or guidance to children that relates to their physical, emotional or educational well-being.
Roles within this category include:
Children’s mentors
Counsellors
Children’s careers advisers
and, for example, people advising children who ring Child-Line.
In relation to vulnerable adults, this category covers any form of assistance, advice or guidance provided wholly or mainly to vulnerable adults. This will include advice given to patients in NHS or their healthcare settings. It would also include assistance targeted at vulnerable adults – for example, voluntary or other independent organisations that provide advice or support to older people or disabled people.
Individuals who visit vulnerable adults to offer such assistance will be engaged in regulated activity if the assistance is frequent.
Services that are aimed at the general public are not regulated activity.
In regulated activity - Any form of healthcare treatment or therapy.
This includes people such as:
Healthcare professionals
Therapists
Healthcare assistants in both hospitals and community settings, and St John Ambulance staff.
It does not include first aid treatment where giving first aid is an ancillary role to a person’s main occupation.
Driving a vehicle solely for the purpose of conveying children or vulnerable adults.
This includes:
Taxi drivers used by schools and care homes to transport children or vulnerable adults, and minibus/ bus drivers taking children to or from Scout or Guide camp, or taking vulnerable adults on day trips from care homes. It also includes those employed to teach under- 18s how to drive, ambulance drivers and those who drive vulnerable groups on a voluntary basis. It does not cover transport arrangements made between families and friends on a personal basis.
It also does not include bus drivers who drive public vehicles, which may or may not pick up children or vulnerable adults on the road, or taxis hailed/hired independently by children or vulnerable adults.
Moderating an online chatroom that is likely to be used wholly or mainly by children or vulnerable adults. Chatroom moderators have a significant opportunity to abuse children or vulnerable adults either directly or indirectly, by knowingly permitting others to abuse them.
Vulnerable adults: a definition
A vulnerable adult is defined as a person who is aged 18 years or over and who:
• is living in residential accommodation, such as a care home or a residential special school.
• is living in sheltered housing.
• is receiving domiciliary care in their own home.
• is receiving any form of healthcare.
• is detained in lawful custody (in a prison, remand centre, young offender institution, secure training centre or attendance centre, or under the powers of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999).
• is under the supervision of the probation services.
• is receiving a welfare service defined as the provision of support, assistance or advice by any person, the purpose of which is to develop an individual’s capacity to live independently in accommodation or support their capacity to do so.
• is receiving a service or participating in an activity for people who have particular needs because of their age or who have any form of disability.
• is an expectant or nursing mother living in residential care,
• is receiving direct payments from a local authority or health and social care trust in lieu of social care services.
• People who need assistance to conduct their affairs.
Anyone under the age of 18, except for 16 and 17 year olds in an employment setting.
The Vetting and Barring Scheme started to be rolled out on 12 October 2009. From that date, the old ‘barred lists’ – List 99, the Protection of Children’s Act List (POCA), the Protection of Vulnerable Adults List in England and Wales (POVA), and the Disqualification from Working with Children List, the Unsuitable Persons List and the Disqualification from Working with Vulnerable Adults List in Northern Ireland, as well as the current system of disqualification orders that is operated by the criminal justice system – were phased out and replaced by two new lists: the Children’s Barred List and the Adults’ Barred List.
These two new lists contain details of those individuals the ISA has decided it is appropriate to bar from working with children or vulnerable adults and who are therefore prevented from working or
volunteering with them. The lists are now maintained by the ISA.
The purpose of the ISA is to reduce the risk of harm to children and vulnerable adults from people who work with them. The ISA will do this by assessing information referred to them on the risk of harm posed by an individual working or applying to work in regulated activity, based on known information held about that individual.
A team of caseworkers, who have undergone training in assessing risk of harm, will decide on a case-by-case basis whether, on the information available to them, it is appropriate to bar an individual from working with children and/or vulnerable adults. The caseworkers are supported by a continuous training and support programme and by a board of public appointees with a range of experience and knowledge in the field of safeguarding.
The circumstances in which an individual can be automatically included on either the Children’s or the Adults’ Barred List fall into two categories.
• For certain very serious specified offences, the ISA will bar without further assessment.
• The second category relates to those offences that, although serious, will allow the individual concerned to make representations as to why the bar should be removed. In these cases, the ISA will be required to place the individual on the relevant list(s), but will request representations from the individual and consider them accordingly.
A full list of automatic bar offences is contained in Statutory Instrument 2009/37, is available at:
www.opsi.gov.uk
The ISA decision making process
The purpose of the ISA’s decision making process is to ensure that all barring decisions follow a standard process which affords a fair, rigorous, consistent, transparent and legitimate assessment of whether an individual should be prevented from working with children and/or vulnerable adults. For further information on the ISA’s decision making process, please see the ‘Guidance Notes for the Barring Decision Making Process’ available on the ISA website at www.isa.homeoffice.gov.uk
Allowing someone to work in regulated activity while knowing that they are barred is a serious offence
As a RAP, if you are found guilty of this offence you will be liable, on conviction in a crown court, to imprisonment for up to five years, or to a fine at a level decided by the court, or both.
The duty to refer information to the ISA
There is a duty on RAPs (this also covers personnel suppliers) to refer individuals to the ISA for consideration for barring in relevant circumstances and to provide information to the ISA upon request.
The duty to refer will apply in the following circumstances: when a RAP has withdrawn permission
for an individual to carry out regulated activity, or if the individual has left while under investigation and the RAP thinks that the individual has harmed or poses a risk of harm to a child or vulnerable adult.
Specifically, the RAP must refer the case to the ISA if they think that the individual committed an offence that would lead them to be included on a barred list .
More details can be found on the ISA website: www.isa.homeoffice.gov.uk
RAPs may also refer individuals if they are concerned about their conduct and think the ISA ought to be made aware of it. Note that RAPs should not make referrals on the basis of allegations they suspect to be unfounded or malicious.
When making a referral, RAPs should use the downloadable referral form (see www.isa.homeoffice.gov.uk ). The form asks for information about the individual’s identity (to help the CRB locate any information about their criminal background), as well as information about the allegation. However, you will only need to provide information that you already have, not carry out investigations in order to establish new information to complete all the fields on the form.
The duty to provide information will override any local advice that information should be withheld on grounds of confidentiality. Failure without reasonable excuse to provide required information is an offence, and the magistrates’ court may impose a fine of up to £5,000 on anyone convicted.
Before making a referral, it is good practice to consult local children’s services or adult social services, as appropriate. They may be able to offer helpful advice or have additional information that can be passed on to the ISA in a parallel or co-ordinated referral.
Further information - Contact Telephone Numbers:
APCS clients may contact us on: 0845 643 1145 for general advice.
If you have further questions about the Vetting and Barring Scheme,
Please contact their information line on: 0300 123 1111
For specific questions about referrals (including ongoing POVA, POCA and List 99 cases), barring decisions and individual cases, please contact the:
Independent Safeguarding Authority on: 01325 391328
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