Gosport Community Association Network Meeting

23rd January 2013

Hardway, Elson and Districts Community Association

Present

Denise Utley - HEDCA

Monica Shilling – GCA

Nicky Staveley – GVA

Alison Angell – HCC

Apologies

Jim Stallard – RCT

Alana Gooding – RCT

Discussions

The meeting took the form of two themes of discussion,

  • The relationship and opportunities to work with Holbrook Leisure Centre
  • The new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

Holbrook Leisure Centre

Several attempts had been made to contact them and invite them to the meeting. Unfortunately they haven’t responded.

Disclosure and Barring Service

See notes, plus participants were given the publication from DBS called ‘Changes to disclosure and barring – what you need to know.’

DBC Checks: eligibility guidance

Next meeting

24th April 10.00am Thorngate Halls

Disclosure and Barring Key points

The CRB has been renamed to the DBS (Disclosure & Barring Service)

The CRB has merged with the ISA (Independent Safeguarding Authority). This makes sense as the two bodies work so closely together. The CRB manage the administration process to produce CRB certificates. The ISA hold and manage the national barred lists (Children's and Vulnerable Adults).

They will merge to become the DBS

Organisations will still have a duty to make referrals to the Independent Safeguarding Authority i.e. DBS, and must not knowingly engage a barred person in a regulated activity. It is a LEGAL requirement for Information to be sent to ISA if you dismiss or remove someone from a regulated activity (or would have done if they hadn’t left your organisation)

Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 – sets out what are ‘regulated activities’ which then can not be carried out by a person who is barred by ISA

Changes to valid ID documents

The CRB have reduced the number of documents that are acceptable as ID.

Reducing the number of documents acceptable for ID verification will reduce people’s ability to use documents that are easily obtained or forged to assert their identity to obtain a CRB certificate, which could be used to secure a position of trust.

21 documents have been removed and are no longer acceptable under the new arrangements. These include National Insurance cards, exam certificates and insurance certificates.

The CRB estimate that 10% of the population would not be able to provide sufficient documents under the new regulations. Where individuals cannot provide enough ID, the employer must use an external company to carry out a supplementary identity check (similar to a credit check) to corroborate the person's identity. This will come at a cost to the employer

Changes to the types of roles that are eligible to be CRB checked

These changes are have been made law under the Protection of Freedoms Act which received royal assent in May 2012. More information was given to employers on 3 July 2012, given them two months to ensure they comply with new regulations.

The key changes are :

  • Employers cannot CRB check anyone under 16. The current age is 10.
  • The removal of eligibility to CRB check staff who have access to sensitive data (namely data regarding children, adult service users and educational records of children).
  • The removal of eligibility to ask for the Children's and Adults barred lists to be covered on a CRB check, if the individual is largely supervised by another.

April 2013 - Implementation of a new on-line "Update Service"

Individuals who apply for a new CRB from April 2013 will be able to subscribe to an on-line update service which will hold basic details of their CRB certificate. The subscription is likely to be £10 per year and is voluntary.

Employers can then access this on-line service (free-of-charge) and find out whether the individual's CRB status has changed since the certificate was originally issued. It will not show any detail of the change, simply a flag to "check again".

The advantage to the individual is that they can "carry a CRB round with them" provided it is at the correct level and covered the relevant barred lists to the role they are performing.

The advantage to employers is that if there is no change to an individuals status, it will safe time and money during the recruitment process by accepting the individual's current CRB certificate (subject to any regulator requirements / legal re-checking frameworks).

It is anticipated that employers will also be able to run batches of checks enabling swift, and free, re-checking.

The disadvantage is that the update service is voluntary and it is unknown as to the level of uptake and it will only be for new CRBs undertaken from April 2013 (ie. not retrospectively).

April 2013 - CRB certificates will go to the applicant only. Employers no longer get a copy

Your organisation will have to wait until the applicant receives their certificate and then ask them to bring their CRB certificate to the employer for review.

You will have to ensure you have a policy in place to address the issue of an employee refusing or delaying review.

Enhanced DBS

Decisions about inclusion on the children's barred list (which replaced the Protection of Children Act list and list 99) and the adults' barred list (which replaced the Protection of Vulnerable Adults list), are now being made by the DBS. Information about whether someone is barred is included in an enhanced criminal record check.

Brown envelope information

Although there is no longer provision under the Police Act, Police may choose to use common law powers to provide information to organisations to prevent crime or harm to others. They also apply a rigorous test to identify if any locally held information should be disclosed.