We are an Agent for the Independent Safeguarding Authority Update

 

You may have seen the recent Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) announcement giving further details of the introduction of the ISA Scheme which will replace the current PoVA, PoCA and List 99 provisions.

 

The Home Office announcement stated that the new Scheme will start in October 2009 and gave details of the fee for registering with the ISA which is ????. However, following this announcement there has been some confusion about the fee and so Disclosure News thought it would be useful to clarify the situation.

ISA Registration

A person can make a request to register with the ISA Scheme if they are currently working with the vulnerable or are considering this kind of job. The request for this Registration is made under the provision of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act rather that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1975. It is not necessarily linked to an employment position, for example, private tutors who are self-employed, and are not currently eligible for a Disclosure, will be able to register with the ISA. This check will result in the issue of a notification of the ISA Registration and will cost the applicant ?

Where an application for Registration with the ISA is made as part of a recruitment process that also requires a Disclosure, you can apply for both on the same form. The CRB Countersignatory (thats us) must, of course, ensure that the post applied for meets the eligibility criteria for a Disclosure, just as they do now. This joint application will result in a Disclosure certificate and a notification of the ISA Registration. These two applications will be processed at a cost ?

 

The fee for registering with the ISA, meets the two administrative costs of the organisations involved in the process. When the ISA Registration application is made, the CRB conducts the same checks as it does for an Enhanced Disclosure and provides the resultant information to the ISA to make a decision about barring, rather than supplying the information to the employer to make a recruitment decision. The additional cost of the check covers the administrative cost to the ISA, for:

 

How to make an application.

A new application form is currently in the design process and this will allow an application for either an ISA Registration, a Disclosure or a combined ISA Registration and Disclosure. Each application will be routed via a Registered Body (thats us) since the applicant’s identity still needs to be verified. These organisations may apply charges for their services (we will).

 

What information is accessed and released?

An application for ISA Registration will result in a check of the same information accessed by the CRB to conduct an Enhanced Disclosure. Any information found is considered against the barring criteria. If the conviction history is sufficient to warrant a bar, the applicant will receive notification and an explanation of the decision.

 

If a person is barred then an employer may be committing an offence to employ them to work within the children or vulnerable adult sectors. The decision to employ is therefore largely taken out of the hands of a prospective employer. There are two work sectors –working with children and working with vulnerable adults and it is worth employers remembering that it is possible to be barred from one sector without necessarily being barred from the other.

 

Where a conviction history is not sufficient to warrant being barred the applicant will be registered by the ISA. For those organisation's who are required by statute or regulatory bodies, to have a CRB check, this requirement will remain in place. The CRB check will continue to detail the full conviction history of an applicant and this will still be important for employers as some of this information may be insufficient to merit a bar, but still of concern to an employer. For example, convictions for theft may not be sufficient to bar a person, but if they were to work in a care home this information may be influential in the recruitment decision
 

ISA terminology – Barred

 

Over the next few months, Disclosure News will be providing explanations of the terms used within the new process. We start with the term barred or barring.

 

People who pose a risk to children or vulnerable adults will be prevented from working with them in any regulated activity and will be termed as ‘Barred’. In this context working includes volunteering to work with them in a regulated activity.

 

The ISA will maintain a barred list for each sector, i.e. one for those barred from working with children and a second for those barred from working with vulnerable adults. When taking the barring decision, the ISA will decide whether the bar should extend to both sectors.

 

There will be two ways a bar can be imposed. An automatic bar which will be imposed for the most serious offences and which will not have a right for representations to be made. The second is a decision based on the conviction history that would not warrant an automatic bar but where the ISA has taken a decision to impose a bar. This is eligible to appeal and the applicant will have an eight week period to make presentations against the decision.

There will be minimum periods of barring, which must elapse before a person is able to seek a review of the barring decision:

Under 18 year olds - 1 year
18 -24 year olds - 5 years
25 year olds and over - 10 years

A review of the barring decision will only take place where an individual demonstrates there has been a change in circumstances.