Improved safeguarding arrangements

ENGLAND – Children and vulnerable adults are now to be better protected with the start of the new Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS).

The new scheme will be delivered by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). Its tighter regulations are at the heart of the government’s strategy for increasing the protection of vulnerable members of our society.

The new VBS was created following the Bichard Inquiry into the Soham murders, which recommended a number of key improvements to the system that bars unsuitable individuals from working with children or vulnerable adults.

Stricter controls will begin to replace existing arrangements that determine who can’t work with children and vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

New entrants and volunteers working with vulnerable groups will need to start to apply to become ISA registered from July 2010.

The following increased safeguards have been introduced, further enhancing protection of children and vulnerable adults:

• the existing criminal offence for barred individuals who apply to work with children or vulnerable adults will be extended to a wider range of posts. Employers also face criminal sanctions for knowingly employing a barred individual across a wider range of work;

• additional jobs and voluntary positions will be covered by the barring arrangements, including moderators of children’s internet chat rooms and a large number of NHS and prison service staff;

• employers, social services and professional regulators have a duty to refer to the ISA any information such as why they stopped or considered stopping an individual from working with vulnerable groups where they consider them to have caused harm or posed a risk.