Changes to checks for those working with children and vulnerable adults will start from October 2009.
The creation of the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) is part of the biggest overhaul of vetting and barring arrangements ever undertaken in this country. It will cover 11.3 million people wishing to seek work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults.
The ISA scheme will mean a single vetting authority maintains a constantly updated list of people who are not allowed to work with children or vulnerable adults - this will incorporate all existing barring lists. POCA POVA and List99.
If a person is not barred from employment with vulnerable people they will be ISA registered, although it will remain the employer's decision whether to hire them. The authority will work alongside the Criminal Records Bureau, which will continue to issue criminal records disclosures to help employers make recruitment decisions.
This mandatory scheme aims to prevent those who are deemed unsuitable to work with children and/or vulnerable adults from gaining access to them through their work. From October 2009 employers will be able to check that individual staff members have been assessed for work with vulnerable groups, further enhancing one of the most robust employment checking systems in the world
The ISA is an independent body with its own remit and barring criteria which will decide on a case-by-case basis if an individual poses a risk of harm to vulnerable groups.
The go-live date has been reached after consultation with key strategic partners to make sure that it is not only operationally feasible, but that it also gives employers enough time to fully prepare for the introduction of the scheme.
This is a complex scheme which will cover 11.3 million people within a wide variety of workplaces. Starting in 2009 will allow us to ensure an improved level of safeguarding as well the development of better information sharing systems.
We will keep you up to date with further developments as they happen.