Background

New Guidance relating to the management of allegations against professionals and volunteers was introduced in ‘Working Together 2006’, which sets out how various agencies and organisations work together to safeguard children. This new guidance was introduced following the Inquiry undertaken by Sir Michael Bichard into the murders of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman by Ian Huntley in Soham in 2002.

A range of recommendations were made following this Inquiry that were, amongst other things,  designed to make it harder for unsuitable people to have access to children through their employment or volunteering activities, and to deal efficiently and effectively with any allegations made against those people employed or working with children and young people.

Definition of an allegation

For the purpose of this process an allegation is where an adult working with or on behalf of children has:

• Behaved in a way that has harmed, or may have harmed a child, or
• Possibly committed a criminal offence against or related to a child, or
• Behaved towards a child or children in a way that indicates unsuitability to work with children.

In these circumstances, or where clarity is required, a discussion with the Senior Manager will be necessary.

New Structure

There is now a new structure for dealing with and managing all allegations made against professionals or volunteers and 3 distinct roles for managing aspects of the allegations at different stages of the process.

1. NAMED SENIOR OFFICER – LOCAL SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN BOARD MEMBERS (see attached)

The Named Senior Officer has overall responsibility for ensuring that their organisation operates procedures for dealing with allegations in accordance with guidance outlined in Working Together, resolving any inter-agency issues and liaising with their LSCB on the subject.

Responsibilities include

• Ensuring that their organisation complies with the standards identified and agreed by the LSCB for managing allegations as outlined in Working Together 2006
• Ensuring that LSCB procedures for managing allegations are reflected and implemented within their own agency procedure
• Ensuring that the workforce is aware of and implements the procedures in relation to all allegations against adults who work with or on behalf of children
• Ensuring that the key roles of Named Senior Officer, Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) and Senior Manager are reflected in their agency policy and procedure
• Ensuring that effective reporting and recording arrangements within their agencies are in place

2. SENIOR MANAGER – HR CONSULTANTS/MANAGERS (see attached)

The Senior Manager within the organisation has the overall responsibility for ensuring procedures are followed at an operational level.

The Senior Manager will be the person within any agency/organisation to whom allegations are reported to in the first instance. Attached is the list of HR staff within each LSCB organisation to whom staff will reports to.

The Senior Manager  -

• Provides advice, information and guidance to staff within the organisation, liaises with and refers allegations that meets the criteria to the Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO).
• Gather any additional information which may have bearing on the allegation e.g. previous known concerns, care and control incidents etc
• Provide the subject of the allegation with information and advise them to inform their union of professional body
• Record all discussions on the agreed Recording Form  and attend strategy meetings
• Ensure that risk assessments are undertaken where and when required
• Ensure that effective reporting and recording systems are in place which allow for the tracking of allegations through to the final outcome
• Undertake appropriate checks with data the agency may hold

3. LOCAL AUTHORITY DESIGNATED OFFICER

The LADO will discuss all allegations with the Senior Manager and where necessary will assist them in establishing whether the allegation fits the criteria as set out in Working Together 2006.

The LADO should be informed of ALL allegations that come to the Senior Managers attention.  The LADO and the Senior Manager will then discuss and agree next steps.

The LADO is also responsible for chairing Strategy meetings with the police and Senior Manager, with other staff where necessary to agree and plan any further investigation/action relating to the allegation.

The LADO will maintain an information database in relation to all allegations and producing quantitative and qualitative reports as required.

VETTING AND BARRING SCHEME

There is now a new scheme in place that requires staff and volunteers who apply to or work with children to be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority if engaging in Regulated Activity.

Regulated Activity is defined as; 

Frequently means one or more days per month (or within a 4 week period)

Intensively means contact over two or more days (can be for a short period of time i.e. one hour on each contact).

These definitions are an attempt to manage those contacts between adults and children where there is an opportunity to build a relationship of trust.

The ISA will consider all information received in relation to those who are considered to be unsuitable to work with children, or convicted of offences against children, as outlined in Working Together 2006.

This new scheme places a duty on organisations to refer those people that are considered to be unsuitable to work with children through the process of managing an allegation as outlined above, or via criminal conviction. Where an employer or organisation has registered an interest in being kept informed about changes to a persons registration status, which can be done when the initial CRB and ISA registration is carried out or online at a later date, the ISA will inform them if they have subsequently become ‘barred’ from the scheme due to new information that the ISA assess makes them unsuitable to work with children.

All people working with children via employment or volunteer activities will be required to register, via the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) process and will not be able to commence work until checks have been made with the ISA and the outcome is known - any employer doing so will be breaking the law.

Once registered, and unless the individual is subsequently considered by the ISA to be unsuitable to work with children, they will remain registered and checks can be undertaken by any new employer online. These checks will confirm whether the person is registered or not.

The Registration under the ISA relates to suitability to work with children (or vulnerable adults) ONLY and not particular jobs. Where a person has a criminal conviction not relating to an offence against a child i.e. drink driving or burglary, this will not be used to update a persons registration, only those convictions relating to children will be used by the ISA to consider barring an individual. Therefore employers may want to consider updating CRB checks every number of years.

If an individual is, or becomes, ‘barred’ they must then not apply to work with children, as it is now a criminal offence. Barred individuals may be employed in some activities in some circumstances, not relating to children or other areas where there may be access to children, vulnerable adults or sensitive information.

Introduction of the Scheme

The new ISA Scheme is being phased in over 5 years from 12th October 2009. The first wave of those working with children and young people to be registered will be any new workers or those changing jobs (in regulated activity).

Cost of Registration

The overall cost of registering with the ISA will be £64 per person. The fee consists of two elements –

£28 – which will cover

• the cost of administering the registration process with the ISA,
• the cost of the instant online registration checking system,
• the cost of volunteers registering with the scheme (as they will register for free) and
• the cost of continuous monitoring and updating whilst registered with the scheme

£36 – which will cover the CRB’s costs as administrators of the applications

See the ISA website www.isa-gov.org for further details or the vetting and barring scheme and how the ISA will operate.

Nicola Bennett

Integrated Safeguarding Officer

Children’s Service

Bath and North East Somerset Council

March 2008