vetting, barring and CRB reforms
Scaled back vetting, barring scheme and CRB reforms
announced
18 February 2011
Eight months after the government announced its plans to review
the remit of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), the
Protection of Freedoms Bill was finally published last Friday.
Whilst the Bill covers everything from the use of CCTV to the
destruction of DNA samples, Part 5 sets out significant changes for
the ISA and the CRB process.
Fundamental changes to the ISA
Alongside the sensible decision to merge the ISA and the
Criminal Records Bureau and scrap ‘controlled activity’, the
government intends to scale back the extent of the schemes to
ensure that only those who have regular contact with children and
vulnerable adults are covered. In doing so, it has scrapped the
much maligned registration requirement and put the onus for
ensuring staff and volunteers are suitable firmly back in the court
of the employer.
Importantly, changes to the definition of ‘regulated activity’
have also been tabled. The rather complex current definition set
out in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act runs to 16 pages. It
is clear that the proposed new definition will affect far fewer
people, but the confusion around the edges of the definition looks
set to remain. The new approach is equally unclear and early
estimates suggest around 4.5m people will still be affected.
Reduced bureaucracy for the CRB process
Sweeping changes to the CRB system are welcomed and seek to
offer fairness to the individual and remove the current requirement
to renew the certificate at regular intervals.
It is likely that the 2009 House of Commons’ Children, Schools
and Families Committee report, coupled with the court decision in
Desmond v Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police [2011]
influenced the drafting of the Bill by proposing important changes
to the rights of the individual. If the Bill is passed in its
current form, a CRB disclosure will be sent to the individual,
before the employer, who has the right to request that information
included by the police be reviewed by a different police force.
In addition, a system of regular updating is proposed where a
prospective employer can check whether any new information is
available for an individual with an existing CRB disclosure via an
online system. If there is, a new certificate is required, but if
no new information is available, the existing CRB can be accepted.
It is hoped that this system will reduce the bureaucracy that
hampers the current CRB process.
Assuming the proposed changes make it through Parliament
unscathed, we are unlikely to see a new law until late 2011, with a
likely implementation date sometime in early 2012.
The legal duty to refer stays
As a final point, it should be noted that the legal duty to
refer conduct to the ISA remains and no changes are proposed. This
wide ranging duty applies to employers, local authorities and other
bodies including the CQC, the GMC and Ofsted, and ensuring
compliance with it will continue to be important, in particular for
employers, who could face criminal penalties for failing to
refer.
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