Working with the Independent Safeguarding Authority
The Independent Safeguarding Authority will be an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB).
A NDPB is a body which has a role in the processes of national Government, but is not a Government department, or part of one, and so operates at arms length from Ministers. NDPBs can have a national or regional remit and carry out a wide range of important functions. Their distance from Government means that the day-to-day decisions they make are independent as they are removed from Ministers and Civil Servants. However, Ministers are ultimately responsible to Parliament for an NDPB’s effectiveness and efficiency.
Executive NDPBs:
- are set up by Ministers to carry out administrative, commercial, executive or regulatory functions on behalf of the Government;
- they have their own legal identity and tend to be established by an Act of Parliament; in the case of the ISA this is the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act (2006)
- employ their own staff;
- are allocated their own budgets;
- have board members whose appointments are made by Ministers, and Ministers are ultimately answerable for the performance of the bodies
The Home Office (HO) will be the sponsoring department of the Independent Safeguarding Authority. The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department of Health (DH) will be responsible for policy development.
The Chair of the ISA is Sir Roger Singleton and the Chief Executive is Adrian McAllister. In addition, non-executive Board Members (public appointees) will support the Chair and Chief Executive in providing clear, strong and visible leadership for the organisation, and assist in the overall governance of the Independent Safeguarding Authority. They will actively contribute to the formulation of Board strategy, the discharging of statutory duties and will oversee the production of realistic and costed business plans. Members will have collective responsibility for ensuring that the ISA adopts proper processes for weighing evidence, assessing risk and exercising sound judgment in determining who should be placed on the barred lists. The Board is responsible for all decisions to place on and remove people from these statutory lists.
Employees of the Independent Safeguarding Authority will be public servants, rather than civil servants. Powers in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 give the ISA authority to employee its own staff and these staff, unlike civil servants, will not be Crown employees.
The Home Office has received confirmation from the Cabinet Office that the Independent Safeguarding Authority has been admitted to Schedule 1 to the Superannuation Act 1972. In plain English, this means that if you join the Independent Safeguarding Authority you will have the option to join the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme.
What will it feel like in the ISA?
Clearly, because the ISA is a brand new organisation, the first 12 months will be a period of development and learning. There will be opportunities for individuals, irrespective of where they sit within the ISA, to get involved in different ways. It will also be important for everyone to be flexible, perhaps picking up whatever needs to be done, in the very early days when we are still establishing ourselves as an organisation.
Discussions are continuing about how we manage cases coming into the existing schemes once the ISA has been set up. There will be a range of other work which also needs to be done before the new scheme goes live later next year:
- Considering whether the individuals currently barred from working with children or vulnerable adults should be barred under the new scheme. DCSF are working through these cases and will provide them to the ISA in January. Additions to the new Barred Lists will not take effect until the ISA go-live later in 2008.
- Inducting and training new staff into the ISA, explaining the purpose of the organisation, as well as the new barring criteria and processes to be used. There will be a large number of staff joining the ISA over a short period of time and the ISA will ensure that staff are well managed and supported through this period.
- Installing and testing the new Case Management System currently being developed. It is vital that the system is comprehensively tested prior to go-live. Testing will also need to cover all the interfaces which will exchange information between the Criminal Records Bureau and the ISA once the new scheme has gone live. We will also need to test the arrangements established for sharing information with other organisations, for example, Disclosure Scotland or the General Teaching Council.
Further information and background can be found in these downloads:
- A booklet produced by the ISA: An introduction to the Independent Safeguarding Authority. (pdf version).
- Imagine: 4 video clips (Flash or Windows Media Player versions) that provide some background as to why the Independent Safeguarding Authority has been set up and how it will work. Please note: The videos contains themes that some may find disturbing.
- Artist impression of Stephenson House location. (please note that the this is a large file (61MB) and may, given your internet connection, take some time to download)