The Vettining and Barring Scheme is currently under governmental review.
The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) aims to ensure that unsuitable people do not work with children, whether in paid employment or on a voluntary basis. The scheme comprises:
• two barred lists, maintained by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). One list comprises persons barred from working with children, and the other is for persons barred from working with vulnerable adults. From 12 October 2009 these lists replaced the list held under section 142 of the Education Act 2002 known as ‘List 99’, the list held under the Protection of Children Act 1999 and the list held under the Protection of Vulnerable Adults Scheme. It is a criminal offence for a barred person to engage in ‘regulated activity’ (see below) or for an employer knowingly to engage a barred person to carry out such work; and • a register of those wishing to work with vulnerable groups. Except where there is a specific exception, from November 2010 all new entrants to the children’s workforce will be required to register with the Scheme before being allowed to engage in any relevant duties. From this date, it will be a criminal offence for anyone entering the sector to work in regulated activity or for an organisation to allow a non-registered individual to do so. Registration for existing workers will be phased in over the period 2011-2015, and employers will be expected to facilitate the registration, at the appropriate time, of staff that carry out regulated activity. Guidance on the coverage of the scheme, on the exceptions from registration and on phasing will be made available on the ISA website.
Since October 2009, the duties to refer concerns regarding individuals under List 99 and the Protection of Children Act 1999 were replaced with a duty to refer information to the ISA. The circumstances where a referral must be made are where:
a. an individual has been removed from ‘regulated activity’ (or would or might have been removed if they had not already left); and b. the employer/volunteer manager thinks that ‘relevant conduct’ has occurred, or the individual poses a risk of harm.
The duties to refer and to provide information to the ISA on request are placed on regulated activity providers and certain other bodies, including local authorities in their children’s services and adult social care capacities. Failure by regulated activity providers to carry out the duty is a criminal offence. Compliance by local authorities is subject to local government performance management systems. ‘Regulated activity’ is defined in guidance on the ISA’s website.
‘Relevant conduct’ is defined as:
a. conduct which endangers a child or is likely to endanger a child; b. conduct which, if repeated against or in relation to a child, would endanger that child or would be likely to endanger him; c. conduct involving sexual material relating to children (including possession of such material); d. conduct involving sexually explicit images depicting violence against human beings (including possession of such images), if it appears to the Independent Safeguarding Authority that the conduct is inappropriate; or e. conduct of a sexual nature involving a child, if it appears to the ISA that the conduct is inappropriate.
Full guidance on referrals and the VBS can be found on the ISA’s website. The Secretary of State has issued guidance on what constitutes “inappropriate” in d. and e. above. This guidance is available on the ISA’s website.
The new barred lists will in time replace the regime of disqualification orders imposed by the courts under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 (CJCSA), as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 2003. Until the VBS is fully phased in, individuals working with children could be either barred or subject to disqualification orders. Either way, they must be removed from such work and commit an offence if they carry out such work.
This information has been taken from Working Together to Safeguard Children 2010.
