Safeguarding
One of the most important protections for children and young people, against the risk of abuse or neglect, is to ensure that anyone working with young people is subject to a Criminal Records Bureau(CRB) check. For full details please visit the CRB site from which the advice below on CRB checks is obtained.
Please NOTE the first milestone regarding Regulated Activities came into effect in October 2009 by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (see information below). Further information is available in the form of a powerpoint presentation at: http://www.isa-gov.org/default.aspx?page=395 or at http://www.isa-gov.org.uk/.
NB: Further to a review of the Vetting and Barring scheme by Sir Roger Singleton, Chair of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, the government has accepted the recommendations. The report 'Drawing the Line' confirms the scheme is not right to intervene in private arrangements between parents and friends. But where organisations make decisions on which adults work with children, the requirement to register should apply if the contact is sufficient enough to allow a relationship of trust. 16-18 year olds involved in community placement or work experience schemes should not have to be registered. For more information see: http://www.isa-gov.org.uk/
CRB Checks
In simple terms there are two types of check that you might wish to obtain:
Standard CRB Check
Also referred to as a Standard Disclosure. These are primarily for posts that involve working with children or vulnerable adults. Standard checks may also be issued for people entering certain professions, such as members of the legal and accountancy professions. The Standard check contains details of all convictions held on the PNC including current and 'spent' convictions as well as details of any cautions, reprimands or final warnings. If a position involves working with children, the CRB check will indicate whether information is held on three government lists of those who are banned from working with children or the vulnerable.
Enhanced CRB Check
Also referred to as an Enhanced Disclosure. These are for posts that involve a far greater degree of contact with children or vulnerable adults. In general the type of work will involve regularly caring for, supervising, training or being in sole charge of such people. Examples include a Teacher, Scout or Guide leader. Enhanced checks are also issued for certain statutory purposes such as gaming and lottery licences.
This level of check involves an additional level of check to those carried out for the Standard CRB check - a check on local police records. Where local police records contain additional information that may be relevant to the post the applicant is being considered for, the Chief Officer of police may release information for inclusion in an Enhanced check. Exceptionally, and in a very small number of circumstances (typically to protect the integrity of current police investigations), additional information may be sent under separate cover to the Countersignatory and should not be revealed to the applicant.
Umbrella Bodies
It is quicker to conduct a check through an umbrella body that can handle the CRB process for you. Surrey Youth Focus is NOT an agency through which you can do this, but those who are include:
The Lifetrain Trust
Surrey Community Action
GAVS
RAVS
WAVS
The application process is as follows:
• As an Umbrella Body you would act as an intermediate between the CRB and the employing organisation. An overview of the interaction between the three parties is as follows:
Frequency of checks
A CRB check is simply a check at a point in time, paying no account to what might have occurred since the exact date of the check. Moreover many people will have had multiple checks because of their different roles as paid employees, and volunteers each of which could generate the need for a CRB.
An employer will need to decide on the frequency of repeating the check. Many employers whose staff work with children or young people will require checks of their staff every two or three years.
Independent Safeguarding Authority
This is a new Government agency set up to ensure that some of the defects of the current CRB process are addressed. The ISA website is www.isa-gov.org.uk/. The changes about to occur are significant and complex – you are strongly urged to visit the website.
In simple terms any NEW employee or a volunteer working with children or young people will first will have to become registered with the ISA. This will be done as part of the process of obtaining a new CRB check.
Equally any employer MUST check on the ISA of any new employee or volunteer from this October, or risk a significant fine (£5,000).
PLEASE NOTE: The Independent Safeguarding Authority announced a delay to the introduction of the legal requirement for all new employees or volunteers to be registered with the ISA. An individual can now be registered with the ISA from July 2010, and the obligation on the employer to check that a new employee or volunteer working with children and young people is registered now becomes effective from November 2010, instead of 12 October this year.
Please see the ISA website www.isa-gov.org.uk (Home – The scheme – what happens next? for the full details and further information.
Make sure you know what you are expected to do as the new vetting service is introduced in managed phases.
October 2009: Increased safeguards were introduced, such as a wider definition of “Regulated activities”. The three current barring lists were replaced by the creation of two new barred lists administered by the ISA. Please see www.isa-gov.org.uk for the full information.
From July 2010 : Individuals will be able to register with the ISA. Employers and voluntary organisations cannot recruit workers who are not ISA-registered. Individuals can apply for ISA-registration and a CRB check (including an ISA check) on one new application form. See www.isa-gov.org.uk for the full information.
From November 2010 : The legal requirement for employees to register with the VBS and employers to check their status will come into force in November 2010. See www.isa-gov.org.uk for the full information.
From 2011 : Existing employees and volunteers with no CRB check must apply for ISA registration. Existing employees and volunteers with CRB checks will also need to apply for ISA registration, starting with staff whose CRB checks are the oldest. See www.isa-gov.org.uk for the full information.
Further Advice
NCVYS have an excellent toolkit on Safeguarding called “Keeping it safe” and also a wider accreditation system called “Sound Systems” to quality assure an organisations’s approach to safeguarding an child protection.
Surrey Community Action run safeguarding awareness sessions for smaller organisations in association with Surrey Safeguarding Board, and for example there is an ISA Awareness session on 1 April 2009 from 10-12. For details contact Allison Enenche at SCA on 01483- 459292 Ext 228.
Surrey Youth Focus has been involved in a multi- agency group monitoring the ISA’s announcements, and will put further advice on this website as it becomes available.
