Vetting and Barring Scheme – the ins and outs
The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) that has been dogged with controversy since its inception is yet again under review by the Home Secretary, Theresa May. She has called for a ‘common sense’ review that will see the registration of individuals with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), that was due to begin on 26 July, now on hold. Employers will therefore find themselves in limbo as some of the reforms that went live in October 2009 are unchanged whilst new systems have to go live on 26 July, albeit with some modification.
ISA itself has not been disbanded and still has control of the two new barring lists in respect of working with children and vulnerable adults that came into existence last October and can only be accessed via an Enhanced CRB check. Since then it has been, and remains, an offence to apply for work if you are on the barred lists or to employ someone who is barred. Employers who dismiss an individual for harming a child or vulnerable adult must inform ISA so that they can be placed on the appropriate barred list.
As new systems were due to go live on 26 July employers should be aware that new forms are in the process of being introduced. The new (purple) forms come into use on that date. In order to process applications, the CRB will extract and ignore those parts of the new application form which capture ISA registration requirements, and use only those data fields which are required to process a CRB check. So the following should be noted:
- Section A, Question 28 – ‘Do you have an ISA registration number‘ will not be a mandatory field and can be omitted.
- Section D -’apply for registration with ISA‘ can be omitted – you should not complete this section until further notice.
- Section X, Question 61 – ‘Position applied for‘ – only the first 30 characters of this field will be recognised as with the current form therefore it is key that you complete this section as you would for the current form to capture things such as ‘Home Based‘ positions within those first 30 characters
- Section X, Questions 64 and 65 – ‘are you entitled to know whether the applicant is registered to work with children/ vulnerable adults?‘ – continue to answer YES or NO if you require a check of the relevant ISA barred lists.
New forms can be submitted from 28 June but can’t be processed until 26 July when the new IT system goes live. It is therefore sensible to submit the existing forms until 20th July so that they can be processed promptly and then move to the new form, as any old style forms received after 20th July will be rejected. New forms can be ordered on 0870 90 90 811.
It is not clear at this stage whether the previous timetable that would have required all new recruits in England and Wales to be ISA registered from 1st November 2010 will go ahead, however in Scotland they have already confirmed that their scheme will go live in terns of registration from 30th November 2010.
Kate Upcraft
Payroll writer and lecturer
ISIS Support Services Ltd
kateupcraft@btconnect.com
