Vetting & Barring

How vetting and barring currently works

Currently, the Department for Children, Schools and Families is responsible for two schemes to bar unsuitable people from working with children, List 99 in respect of schools and other educational settings and the Protection of Children Act (PoCA) List in relation to children's social care. The Department of Health has responsibility for the Protection of Vulnerable Adults Act (PoVA) List of people who are unsuitable to work in the regulated adult social care sector. The Criminal Records Bureau provides a one-stop shop for checks against criminal records.

The CRB Disclosure may include information from local police records, in addition to information about any spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings. The Police information could include details of acquittals, pending prosecutions, or other non-conviction information. It will also state whether the person is on the List 99 or on the PoCA or PoVA Lists or is disqualified from working with children (Under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000).

Currently, a CRB Disclosure only provides a 'snapshot' of the information available on the day of issue. There is no follow-up if further information subsequently comes to light.

As a result some employers choose to carry out regular rechecks, for example every year, or every three years, but this carries with it additional costs. Furthermore, not all staff who work with children or vulnerable adults are currently eligible for an Enhanced Disclosure.

How the Independent Safeguarding Authority will work

The Independent Safeguarding Authority — previously referred to as the Independent Barring Board — will replace existing vetting and barring procedures for those wishing to work with children and vulnerable adults. It will:

  1. Take all the discretionary barring decisions that are currently taken by the Secretaries of State. The Independent Safeguarding Authority will employ expert staff to help with the discretionary decisions, and will delegate certain administrative functions to the Criminal Records Bureau.
  2. Be independent. Ministers will no longer have any role in making decisions on individual cases. The Independent Safeguarding Authority's decision-making procedures will be based on clear criteria and evidence.
  3. Possess a balance of different expertise in the protection of children, young people and vulnerable adults and the assessment of evidence and other relevant issues.
  4. Have a statutory responsibility to prepare an annual report accounting for its work. Its performance, efficiency and effectiveness will be scrutinised closely by both Government and stakeholders.
  5. Have part-time publicly appointed board members and up to 250 employees to deal with casework.

Our planned improvements

The Independent Safeguarding Authority will reform current vetting procedures by making the following improvements over and above the service provided by current schemes:

The integration of the lists
There will be a single list of those barred from working with children and a separate, but aligned, list of those barred from working with vulnerable adults. These will replace the existing List 99, the POCA list, the POVA list, and the disqualification orders regime.
Pre-employment vetting
The Independent Safeguarding Authority will ensure that those who are known to present a risk of harm to children and/or vulnerable adults are prevented from entering the relevant workforce in the first place.
The introduction of continuous checking
When relevant new information becomes known about an individual who is already in the workforce and being monitored by the scheme, this information will be made available to the Independent Safeguarding Authority. If necessary, the Authority will then review the original decision not to bar.
Workforce coverage
The scope of the new scheme will be much wider than the current arrangements. Checks will be required, for example, in a range of new sectors. In relation to vulnerable adults this is a significant step forward from the existing Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) scheme, which applies in regulated social care settings only, whereas under the new scheme all adult social care settings and providers will be covered. There are also other significant examples. Because anyone in custody is treated as a vulnerable adult - since they are not in control of fundamental aspects of their life like when to eat, sleep, exercise and the like — all prison officers will have to join the scheme. Equally anyone who provides medical treatment will also have to be a scheme member.
A reduction in bureaucracy
Once people have joined the new scheme, subsequent employers will be able simply to check their status in the Scheme on-line free of charge (unless they are under a duty to apply for an Enhanced CRB check).