BREAKING NEWS!
1st October 2011- our new book is out!
This and other books are available direct from us - see 'Book Bargains' page!
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New Agency Worker Regulations 2011 are in force. They give certain rights to those who are employed through agencies (e.g. 'temps') who work for periods of 12 weeks or longer in the same place. See www.legislation.gov.uk for the full regulations and details.
All change! New Government Proposals for the Vetting and Barring Scheme
A while ago, I wrote about the impact on therapy practice of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (see Therapy Today 26, November 2009). This was new legislation, intended to come into force incrementally, creating lists of people barred from working with vulnerable adults and/or children and establishing clear boundaries for these areas of work. The Independent Safeguarding Authority, was created as a national body to maintain and monitor these controls and to operate the lists, with compulsory registration for some categories of work. Once implementation started, it was soon realised that the flow of applicants for registration would be huge! The coalition government of today therefore decided to see if a scaled down version of the original proposals for the Vetting and Barring Scheme would be more workable and if a lesser scheme could also provide sufficient protection for those who need it.
On On 11 February 2011,
the Coalition Government published the findings of its Review into the
Vetting and Barring Scheme. The report is
available in full at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/vetting-barring-scheme/. The key recommendations of
the report are set out below:
Merging the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and
the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
Reduction of roles requiring CRB checks
There will be a large reduction of the number of jobs and roles listed as requiring safeguarding checks. These checks will be limited to just those people working most closely and regularly with children and vulnerable adults. Details of how this revised system will work will be published by the government later in the year.
Portable CRB checks
At the moment, a separate Criminal Records check is required for each separate job or voluntary role where searches are required. This means that therapists working in several places might need to have several separate CRB checks. In future, to cut down on needless bureaucracy, they will be ‘portable’ i.e. one search can be used for several positions/roles
End to registration with the Vetting and Barring Scheme
Limiting employers powers to require unnecessary CRB checks
The website for the ISA (www.isa-gov.org.uk/) confirms that the ISA will be working with the Home Office, the Department for Education, the Department of Health and the CRB to help implement the new arrangements.
Until all the appropriate revisions of the legislation has been introduced and the new arrangements are established in practice, the existing responsibilities of employers and the ISA will remain.
For therapists, these arrangements are relevant:
A person who is barred from working with children or vulnerable adults will be breaking the law if they work or volunteer, or try to work or volunteer with those groups.
An organisation which knowingly employs someone who is barred to work with those groups will also be breaking the law.
If your organisation works with children or vulnerable adults and you dismiss or remove a member of staff or a volunteer because they have harmed a child or vulnerable adult, or you would have done so if they had not left, you must tell the Independent Safeguarding Authority. (Contact details are at www.isa-gov.org.uk.)
Dr Barbara Mitchels