CCPAS - Disclosure Service

The Inquiry questioned the way employers recruit people to work with vulnerable groups, and particularly the way background checks are carried out. Recommendation 19 of the Inquiry Report highlighted the need for a single agency to vet all individuals who want to work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults and to bar unsuitable people from doing so.

The ISA was set up to fulfil this role across England, Wales and Northern Ireland Scotland is setting up a similar authority linked to the ISA. Details of the Scottish scheme are expected later this year and will posted here when available.

In summary, the Act says:

The ISA will make all decisions about who should be barred from working with children and vulnerable adults
The activities include both paid and unpaid (voluntary) work
There will be two separate but aligned ISA Barred Lists (one for those barred from working with children and one for those barred from working with vulnerable adults). Barred individuals can be placed on one or both of these lists
Some offences will automatically result in the individual being barred, without leave to appeal or to make mitigating representations
Relevant information about an individual can be referred to the ISA from interested parties such as employers, regulatory bodies or even concerned members of the public (through a recognised authority such as social services)
Individuals listed on one of the ISA Barred Lists may have the right to appeal to the Care Standards Tribunal on a point of fact or law but not on the ISA’s decision
A series of new criminal offences will be created to enforce the new scheme. These will relate to both employers and employees.

In most cases organisations will still need to carry out a criminal records check in addition to checking a person’s status on the scheme. This is because some offences may not cause an individual to be barred from working with children or vulnerable adults but may be relevant for the position the person has applied for eg serious driving offences for someone applying as a youth worker where the duties include driving the youth mini bus.

The Decision Making Process

The ISA will assess the risk of harm posed by an individual working or applying to work with children or vulnerable adults, based on the information gathered from several sources including the CRB, police database, local authorities and employers.

The decisions will be made by a team of ISA caseworkers who are trained in assessing the risk of harm to children and the vulnerable, supported by expert Board members who have a range of experience and knowledge in the field of safeguarding. The ISA aim to make consistent, justified decisions in what will often be complex and sensitive cases.

There are two categories for automatic inclusion on the two barred lists:

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 sets out a number of very serious offences that will result in an automatic bar without further assessment of the individual, commonly called ‘auto bar offences without representations’
Other serious offences, also set out in legislation, where the individual will be allowed to make representations as to why they should be removed from the list.

For all other cases, the ISA will consider all information available on the individual and make an informed decision as to whether they pose a risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults and, subsequently, whether or not to bar the individual from working with them. The decision making process will include:

Initial assessment of whether relevant conduct has happened or risk of harm to children and/or vulnerable adults has occurred.
Evidence evaluation to assess whether an incident took place or a particular behaviour was displayed. Some cases will be supported by criminal convictions or cautions and the ISA will accept that the incident has taken place but other cases will be considered on the information that is available and a decision will be made on the ‘balance of probabilities’ that something happened or not.
Case assessment to determine the risk that the individual poses to children and/or vulnerable adults on the basis of the earlier findings and evidence
Inviting representations from an individual that the ISA is minded to bar following a case assessment.
Making a decision as to whether it is appropriate to bar on either or both barred lists, based on the level of risk of harm to children and/or vulnerable adults. They will take into account the relevant information and circumstances of the case, including:

The individual’s conviction history
The age of the convictions
The age of the individual at the time of the offence
Whether the offence was a one-off or part of a series of offences
Any mitigating circumstances
Representations received from the individual

Full guidance on the ISA decision making is available on the ISA website. A comprehensive suite of VBS guidance will be published well in advance of July 2010 when individuals will be able to apply for registration to the ISA.

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 creates two types of activity for those working with children and vulnerable adults; regulated and controlled activity.

Regulated activity Those positions now eligible for an enhanced check will be referred to as ‘regulated positions’ or ‘positions where regulated activity occurs’ which can be defined by any of the following activities:

Activity of a specified nature involving frequent, intensive and/or overnight contact with children and/or vulnerable adults (eg teaching, training, care, supervision, advice, treatment and transportation);
Activity allowing frequent or intensive contact with children and/or vulnerable adults that is in a specified place (eg care homes and schools);
Fostering and child minding;
Activity that involves people in certain defined positions of responsibility (eg school governor, director of children/adult social services).

The term ‘regulated activity’ will apply when the activity is:

Frequent. The activity takes place once a month or more. This does not apply to the provisions for fostering, child minding and those who have defined positions of responsibility;
Intensive. The activity takes place on 3 or more days in any 30 day period. This does not apply to the provisions for fostering, child minding and those who have defined positions of responsibility;
Overnight. The activity takes place overnight. This only applies to teaching, care, advice and treatment.

In future, positions referred to as ‘controlled activities’ will be introduced during the 5 year phasing of the Vetting and Barring Scheme. At this stage, it has not been decided when those individuals working in ‘controlled activities’ will be eligible for an enhanced check. As soon as decisions have been made we will inform CCPAS members.

More information on ISA and VBS can be obtained by calling 0300 123 1111 or visiting the ISA website at www.isa-gov.org.uk

Latest news...
On 19th March 2009, the Home Office announced revised dates for the new measures:

From 12 October 2009:

The creation of two new ISA barred lists. These lists will replace the existing List 99 and POCA, POVA Lists.

Access to these new ISA lists will be available on request as part of an Enhanced CRB check.

Eligibility for Enhanced CRB checks will expand to include more employment and voluntary positions; such roles will be known as regulated positions.

Standard CRB checks will no longer be available for those working with children or the vulnerable.

There is no change to the current application form or application process.

Employers, social services and professional regulators have a duty to refer to the ISA any information about individuals who may pose a risk

There will be criminal penalties for barred individuals who seek or undertake work with vulnerable groups and for employers who knowingly take them on

From July 2010:

Individuals will be able, via Registered/Umbrella Bodies, to apply to the CRB for ISA-registration if they are applying to work with children and/or vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. There will be a 5 year phased roll out for ISA registration of those individuals who currently work with children and/or vulnerable adults.

Employers will be able to express an interest in a person’s ISA-registration and informed of any changes to that person’s ISA-registration status.

The CRB will introduce a new application form to allow applications for ISA-registration and CRB checks to be made on the same form.

Employers can carry out free, online checks of a person’s ISA-registration status.

From November 2010:

It will be a legal requirement for individuals to register with the ISA if they intend to work or currently work with children and/or vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This will be phased in over a five year period and more details will be given nearer the time.

Barred Lists The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) took over responsibility from the Secretary of State for the making of barring decisions on referrals under the PoCA, PoVA, and List 99 schemes in January 2009.

From October 2009, these lists will cease to exist and will be replaced by two new lists, the Children’s Barred List and the Adults’ Barred List, both of which will be centrally administered by the ISA. From October 2009, the ISA will be making barring decisions on referrals under the two new lists.

These new barred lists will contain details of those individuals deemed unsuitable to work with either children or vulnerable adults. The ISA is currently reviewing all those individuals on the existing barred list to determine whether or not they should be included on the new list.

Changes to standard/enhanced criteria From 12 October, all individuals working with children and/or vulnerable adults should apply for checks at enhanced level.