Transcript No Slide Title

Changes to Disclosure
and Barring Services
Stephanie Parker
Workshop contents
• Brief history of vetting and barring
• The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012
• The changes on 10 September 2012, including the
change in adults’ policy
• Criminal records checking and the Update Service
• The new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
• DBS and Shared Lives Plus
• Question and answer session
• Useful links
A brief history
• Coalition Government stated its intention in May
2010 to scale back criminal records checking, and
barring regimes to more proportionate and
common sense levels
• Government halted the delivery of the Vetting and
Barring Scheme (VBS), commissioned an internal
review into the scheme and also an independent
review of the criminal records regime
• These reviews informed the development of the
Protection of Freedoms Act 2012.
Protection of Freedoms Act 2012
• The Act provided the legislative vehicle to make the
changes recommended by the reviews including:
– Scrapping of registration with the ISA, and monitoring
– Scaling back the barring regime to cover only those
who have regular or close contact with vulnerable
groups
– The merging of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to form
a single body to provide a new combined service
– The ISA being given a power to review bars in
appropriate circumstances
– Enabling ‘portable’ criminal records checks with online
updating
Changes on 10th September
• New definition of ‘regulated activity’ (RA) for adults and
children
• Repeal of registration & monitoring; controlled activity;
and additional information
• Introduction of a minimum age (16) at which someone
can apply for a criminal records check
• More rigorous relevancy test for local police information
on an enhanced criminal records check, and a new right
of review available for applicant
• Most people will be barred only if they have engaged, are
engaging or might in the future engage in RA
• Greater powers for the ISA/DBS to review a person’s
inclusion on a barred list
Changes to RA for adults
• VBS sought to define adults as vulnerable by
using circumstances and personal
characteristics
• DH wished to move away from this approach
• Focus should be on the ‘activity’ or ‘service’ that
adults require, limiting RA to the activities that
pose the greatest risk of abuse
• We are seeking to safeguard everyone who
needs those ‘activities’ or ‘services’
RA from 10th September
Those providing:
• Healthcare
• Personal care
• Social work
• Assistance with cash, bills or shopping
• Assistance with the conduct of their own affairs
• Conveying services
Now there is no ‘frequency test’
For a plain English guide to RA please follow:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/08/new-disclosure-and-barringservices-definition-of-regulated-activity/
Criminal records checks
and the Update Service
• Eligibility for standard and enhanced checks
will remain as it is currently
• Government is considering providing plain
English guides to eligibility for standard and
enhanced checks
• The Update Service is due early 2013 and will:
– Be a subscriber service
– Provide free instant online ‘status checks’ of
an existing certificate for employers and
voluntary organisations
The Disclosure and Barring
Service
• The DBS will:
– be a Non Departmental Public Body
sponsored by the Home Office
– take over the functions of both the ISA and
the CRB from 1st December 2012
– have a new chief executive, Adrienne Kelbie,
former deputy chief executive of Hull City
council
– have a new chair, Bill Griffiths, who has held
numerous board roles including chair of the
forensic science service
DBS and Shared Lives Plus
• Processes
– None of the planned changes will affect application
processes, checks will still be done by LAs or
Umbrella Bodies
– From 1st Dec 2012, all contact (for example about
referrals or progress of applications for checks) will be
with the DBS (Home Office will make contact details
available in due course)
• Eligibility
– for criminal records checks remains unchanged
– for barred list checks has been scaled back
DBS and Shared Lives Plus
• Likely checking situation depending on activities:
– Shared Lives carers – required by CQC to have
enhanced criminal records check with barred list
check
– Family members – Shared Lives Schemes can do
barred list checks on family members who live in the
same household, no eligibility for criminal records
checks
– Support carers – likely to be eligible for enhanced
criminal records checks and may be eligible for barred
list checks as well. If the are eligible, CQC would
expect the checks to be undertaken
Useful information
• Home Office website: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/disclosureand-barring
• E-mail queries to: [email protected]
• CRB website: http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crb
• ISA website: http://www.isa.homeoffice.gov.uk
• DH note on regulated activity for adults:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/health/2012/08/new-disclosure-andbarring-services-definition-of-regulated-activity/
• DfE note on regulated activity for children:
http://www.education.gov.uk/childrenandyoungpeople/safeguardi
ngchildren/a00209802/disclosure-barring
• From 1st December 2012 – new DBS website launched:
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dbs - here you can sign up for email
updates