New Vetting and Barring Scheme
Update June 2010
The Vetting and Barring scheme is under review.
Please see this story for more details.
A new scheme is being introduced that aims to prevent unsuitable
people from working with children and vunerable adults. Registered
childminders will be legally required to register on the
scheme.
The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), which was established
under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, is due to be
phased in from October 2009 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Under the terms of the Scheme, individuals who work or volunteer,
or seek to work or volunteer, with children or vulnerable adults in
a range of occupations including childcare, will need to register
with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).
What is the VBS?
The Scheme aims to prevent unsuitable people from working with
children or vulnerable adults by improving screening procedures for
potential employees and volunteers. As a registered childminder you
will need to register with the ISA and will still need to have
regular CRB checks.
Once you are registered you will receive a unique reference
number which you can provide to organisations and employers,
including parents and carers, who will be able to do an online
check into the status of potential employees. This check can only
take place with the consent of the individual who is being checked,
and it will only say if that individual is registered or not to
work with children and vulnerable adults – it will not disclose any
other information.
Changes mean that the two barring lists, administered by the
ISA, will replace three lists currently maintained by two different
government departments: Protection of Children Act (PoCA),
Protection of Vulnerable Adults (PoVA) and List 99.
Also, people included in the new barred lists by the ISA will be
barred from a much wider range of jobs and activities than has been
the case so far. There will be a new duty to share information –
employers, social services and professional regulators will have to
notify the ISA of relevant information so individuals who pose a
threat to vulnerable groups can be identified and barred from
working with these groups. And it will become a crime for a barred
individual to seek or undertake work with vulnerable groups; and
for employers knowingly to take them on.
If you employ an assistant in your childminding setting, you
will have a duty to check that they are ISA registered. You will
also have a legal obligation to refer to the ISA any concerns you
have about an employee who you have removed from regulated activity
due to a safeguarding issue.
When will it start?
From July 2010 all new childminders (and other people new to roles
working with children and vulnerable adults) will be able to
register with the ISA. When a person becomes ISA registered they
will be continuously monitored and their status reassessed by the
ISA against any new information which may come to light. Employers
will be able to check registration status online and will be able
to subscribe to be notified if an employee’s registration
status changes.
The legal requirements are for:
- All new childminders and those moving jobs, must register with
the ISA by November 2010.
- All existing childminders and other members of the workforce
will be phased into the Scheme from 2011 to 2015; those with the
oldest CRB disclosures will be registered first.
How much will it cost?
The fee for an application to the ISA will be £28, in addition to
the £36 CRB disclosure fee, so £64 in total. Volunteers will not
have to pay a fee. The ISA registration will last for life.
To find out more, call the VBS contact centre on 0300 123 1111
Monday to Friday between 8am and 5.30pm or visit the ISA website at
http://www.isa-gov.org.uk/ (external
link).