Safeguarding vulnerable groups

The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill was published on 1 March 2006 and provides for a central vetting process built on the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). A new independent statutory Board will take decisions on including someone on the barred list where evidence suggests that they present a risk of harm to children or vulnerable adults. Key measures of the cross-Government Bill include:

• introducing a new vetting and barring system bringing relevant information together in one place. This will integrate the current List 99 (for teachers), and the Protection of Children Act lists (for those working in childcare settings) and also provide for a new list of people barred from working with vulnerable adults to replace the Protection of Vulnerable Adults list;
• removing responsibility for barring decisions from Ministers entirely and transferring this to a new independent statutory board which will take decisions on whether to include someone on the barred list;
• making it possible for domestic employers, such as parents, to check whether private tutors, nannies, music teachers and care workers are barred;
• for the first time, enabling employers to make a real-time instant check of whether a prospective employee is barred with secure online access rather than the current paper-based process;
• updating barring decisions as soon as any new information becomes available, and where possible, notifying relevant employers if an employee becomes barred.

See April [2006] Fam Law 254 for the full news article.

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