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Work Experience and the Vetting and Barring Scheme
December 2009
From July 2010 anyone working with children will need to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority. But 550,000 school children go on work experience placements each year. So what must you do if you offer them?
Get in on the Act.
We recently told you about the government’s new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) which has been brought in under the Safeguarding of Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. It aims to prevent those who pose a known risk to children and vulnerable adults from working with them.
A new type of authority
The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has been set up to run the VBS. Starting from July 2010 any individual who (1) works or volunteers with children or vulnerable adults/ / or (2) is seeking to do this, must apply to be on its register. These are known as “regulated activities”.
Note. The requirement to register will come in stages with new workers, i.e. those you don’t already employ, being first in the list. Other categories and the dates for their mandatory registration will be announced shortly.
Make a decision
The ISA will consider information from the Criminal Records Bureau, disciplinary action taken by previous employers and social services records. Only where it decided that an applicant is suitable to work with these groups will it place them on its register.
It’s down to you. The onus is on the individual to make sure they are registered with the ISA, not the employer. However, it will commit a criminal offence if it allows a “barred person, or one who is not registered with the ISA but needs to be, to work with a protected group.
Land of confusion
But information released by the government on the VBS appears to have hindered many employers rather than help them. A common question raised by many of our subscribers is what impact it has on work experience placements they offer to those under 18. Many of you are worried that staff who have contact with children will need to be on the register. Some have queried whether it’s safer to stop doing placements altogether. What does the ISE say?
Must they register?
Well, it does not class work experience placements as a regulated activity, primarily because there’s no continuing contact. So in this situation there’s no mandatory requirement to register. But the ISA does suggest that employers still take a “risk-based approach” and put safeguards in place to protect all parties involved.
That’s so unhelpful
Rather unhelpfully it has not issued any specific guidance on how this should be done, So until it does, our advice is to take a common sense approach. For example, don’t allow a single employee to work alone with a child for an extended period of time or in an isolated environment. This type of simple measure will protect both you and them
Source: Tips & Advice Personnel November 26th 2009
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