Transcript Safeguarding Legislation and DBS Checks

Safeguarding Legislation and DBS Checks
By Christine Jackson and Laura Heeley
Background: Previous Legislation
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (“SVGA”)
• Introduced the Vetting and Barring Scheme
• “Regulated Activity” / “Controlled Activity”
• Registration
• Barring
• Referring
• Checking
CRB Checks
• Worked alongside the SVGA
Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (“PFA”)
• Received royal assent on 1st May 2012
• The PFA removed from the previous SVGA regime:
Controlled
Activity
Registration
and monitoring
requirements
Additional
information on
CRB disclosures
Key Changes affecting the Sport Sector
• The PFA introduced four changes that will have an
impact on organisations in the sport sector:
1. New definition of
Regulated Activity
2. Applicant only/Single
Certificate
3. Updating Service
(portability?)
4. Merging of the ISA and
CRB to form DBS
• In addition:
• The DBS shall have a minimum age limit of 16.
• Police must use a more rigorous “relevancy” test.
1. NEW DEFINITION OF REGULATED ACTIVITY
What did the old law say?
Contact with children which is:
of a specified nature (teaching, training, care, supervision, advice, treatment or
transport)
OR
in a specified place (schools, children’s homes and hospitals, juvenile detention
centres)
AND
Happens frequently (once a week or more often)
OR
Happens intensively (four days a month or more) or overnight
Contact with children which is:
of a specified nature (teaching, training, care, supervision, advice,
treatment or transport)
OR
in a specified place (schools, children’s homes and hospitals,
juvenile detention centres)
AND
Happens frequently (once a week or more often)
OR
Happens intensively (four days a month or more) or
overnight
The contact is “unsupervised”
Why is this relevant to you?
1. You may only request
barred information on
individuals “IN” Regulated
Activity.
2. You must not knowingly
employ a barred person in
Regulated Activity.
3. You are required by law to
refer an individual to the DBS if
you remove them from a
Regulated Activity if they have
harmed or pose a risk of harm to
a child or vulnerable adult.
Supervision
• PFA section 64(5):
“such day to day supervision as is reasonable in
all the circumstances for the purpose of protecting
any children concerned.”
• What this means is left for you to decide.
• The government has issued statutory guidance to
help:
http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/
safeguardingchildren/a00209802/disclosure-barring
Statutory guidance
• Is the individual supervised “on a regular basis” by a
person who themselves is in Regulated Activity?
• Consider:
•
•
•
•
the ages of the children (including whether ages differ widely);
the number of children an individual is working with;
whether or not other workers are helping to look after children;
the nature of the individual’s work (or, when in a specified
place, the individual’s opportunity for contact with children);
• how vulnerable the children are; and
• how many workers would be supervised by each supervising
worker.
Example 1
“Mr A helps coach children at his local cricket club. The
children are divided into groups, with assistant coaches
like Mr A assigned to each group. The head coach
oversees the coaching, spends time with each group and
has sight of all groups for most of the time.”
© Department for Education / Department of Health, Social Services and Public
Safety (Northern Ireland), September 2012
Example 2
“Mrs B works as an ASA chaperone at club and county
level. The ASA defines the role of chaperone as follows:
• to act as a “responsible parent” for child swimmers;
• to ensure their general care and well-being while on trips; and
• to discuss any child welfare issues with the Welfare Officer and
to assist the Welfare Officer as requested in child safeguarding
matters.
The role may take place at home or away from the club
base or at events which involve overnight stays.
Mrs B will work with other club officers but will not have any
single person watching her or directing her in her role. Mrs
B acts in this capacity twice a week.”
© Sport and Recreation Alliance, March 2013
Example 3
“Mr C is the sole member of staff working with a group at a
sports club. The Director of the facility is present in the
building and occasionally attends the session. The group
change into their sports kit at the facility. A 15 year old boy
with mild learning difficulties has expressed an interest in
attending the session.”
© Sport and Recreation Alliance, March 2013
Example 4
“A dance club runs an annual concert with children aged 612 participating. The dance sessions leading up to the
concert start in October and occur weekly up to the concert
in December.
Adult members of the club are present to provide
demonstrations of moves for the children. These adult
members are acting in a teaching and training capacity but
are always supervised by the two dance instructors present
for each of the classes. One is the Director for the concert
and one is the Choreographer.
The Director and Choreographer jointly run each rehearsal
although they sometimes rehearse with separate groups
within the class at opposite ends of a large hall.”
© Sport and Recreation Alliance, March 2013
How will this affect you?
• You still can ask for a DBS check on individuals.
• You cannot ask for a barred list check on individuals
unless they are in Regulated Activity i.e.
“unsupervised”.
• You should have an appropriate definition of
“supervision” for your organisation.
• You still must refer an individual to the DBS if you
remove them from Regulated Activity because they
have harmed or may potentially harm a child or
vulnerable adult.
• You should decide how to communicate to your
membership who will be defined in Regulated Activity.
2. APPLICANT ONLY / SINGLE CERTIFICATE
What did the old law say?
• When an individual requested a CRB disclosure for a
role in an organisation two disclosures were released
by the CRB: one to the individual and one to the
organisation.
What has changed?
• From Spring 2013 only one copy of the DBS
disclosure will be released and this will be sent to the
individual.
• This means organisations will be relying on individuals
to send the disclosure on to them.
Exception
• In respect of individuals who are in regulated Activity,
you may request a copy directly from the DBS where:
You become aware that
a disclosure is no longer
current and you ask the
individual to request a
new disclosure;
the individual applies for
the new disclosure; and
21 days have passed
since the disclosure was
issued to the individual
and you still have not
received it from them.
What can you do next?
• Where the disclosure is clear of information you will
have to decide whether or not you want to ask the
individual to send the disclosure to you (NB there may
be errors on the disclosure).
• Where there is content on the disclosure you will want
to have procedures in place which allow you to see
this in order to assess whether the individual can take
up a role in your organisation.
• You will have to decide when you will require an
individual to send in their disclosure and how long you
should wait or chase them for it.
How will this affect you?
• You will need to put in place rules and regulations that
set out:
• how you will get disclosures from individuals;
• when you will require individuals to pass disclosures on to
you;
• how you will ensure individuals do not take up Regulated
Activity roles without you first inspecting their disclosure; and
• how long you will wait for a disclosure before you suspend an
individual from involvement in your organisation.
• You will need to decide whether you continue to
manage decisions on disclosures centrally.
• Consider using an umbrella body to obtain easier
access to information concerning when disclosures
have been issued.
3. UPDATING SERVICE (PORTABILITY?)
What did the old law say?
• An individual holding several roles that required a
disclosure was required to have separate disclosures
for each of their roles with different organisations.
What has changed?
• In Spring 2013 a new system will be introduced which
individuals can choose to join, allowing them to hold
one disclosure for multiple roles.
How will this work?
• The individual will be issued with a disclosure and then
will need to choose to join the Criminal Records Status
Check (“CRSC”) scheme.
• A member of the CRSC scheme will be issued with a
disclosure and a unique number.
• The disclosure can be shown to multiple
organisations, who can check that it is up-to-date by
logging on to a portal and using the unique number.
• The portal will tell you when a disclosure is not current,
but not what information needs to be updated. You
would need to ask the individual to request a new
disclosure and then send it to you.
Limitations
• Dependent on membership.
• Different disclosures will still be needed for different
types of work.
• It is up to you to monitor the portal to ensure that
disclosures are current.
• You won’t know if the content you see on an existing
disclosure is tailored for a specific role or if there are
omissions.
• The Government will charge an annual subscription
fee of around £10 to those individuals wishing to
become members of the CRSC scheme (although the
scheme will be free for volunteers).
How will this affect you?
• As the CRSC scheme is optional you will need to find
a way of managing two systems where some
individuals’ disclosures can be checked for updates
and others’ cannot.
• You will need to decide how often you will check
existing disclosures on the portal to ensure that they
are up-to-date, and whether this will be done manually
or with a computer system.
4. MERGING OF THE ISA AND CRB TO FORM
THE DBS
• On 1st December 2012 the CRB merged with the ISA
to form the Disclosure and Barring Service (“DBS”).
• From 1st March 2013, only DBS application forms will
be processed.
• The services provided have not changed other than
being provided under a new name and logo.
• There are some changes to terminology and all
documents will be rebranded with the DBS logo.
Terminology
“Barred List Check”
• Belongs to the DBS and is a check against the list of
individuals barred from working in Regulated Activity. As
such, organisations may only request barred list checks
for individuals who will be working in Regulated Activity.
“DBS Enhanced Check”
• Includes a check of the Police National Computer
(“PNC”) and any local police information, using the
“relevancy test”. It will not tell you whether or not a
person is barred, although it may well reveal information
on which a barring decision was made.
“DBS Standard Check”
• A check of the PNC, not appropriate for anyone working
with children or vulnerable adults.
Eligibility for DBS Checks
• As discussed earlier, those individuals that are in
Regulated Activity are eligible for both a DBS enhanced
check and barred list check.
• The SRA has provided a flowchart to help you to
determine when individuals are in Regulated Activity and
which DBS checks are available in different scenarios.
Everyone should have a copy in their hand out pack.
Key Things to Take Away
• Be mindful of the new definition of “Regulated Activity”
and when you may ask for a barred list check.
• You should have an appropriate definition of
“supervision” for your organisation.
• You need to review your rules and regulations in light
of the fact that from now on only one copy of the DBS
disclosure will be released and this will be sent to the
individual.
• Be mindful of the new CRSC scheme currently being
introduced as you may have to manage two systems
for CRB disclosures.
• You will need to decide how often you will check on
the CRSC portal whether existing disclosures are upto-date.
Workshop locations