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Welcome to the Independent Safeguarding Authority

Latest ISA updates

Please note, the registration element of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) has been halted as part of the Coalition Government's VBS review. There is no longer a requirement for those working or volunteering with vulnerable groups to register with the ISA.

Criminal records review

The Government’s independent adviser for criminality information management Sunita Mason was commissioned to undertake an independent review into the criminal records regime. This work, which was undertaken in two phases, has now been completed with Mrs Mason’s second report being published today.

To read the report, click here.

The Government has also published its formal response to both phases of the review today.

To read the Government’s response, click here.

To note – This review into the criminal records regime follows the recent review into the Vetting & Barring Scheme (under which the Independent Safeguarding Authority operates). Both reviews made several recommendations which require legislation. These are included in the Protection of Freedoms Bill.

The recommendations within the Bill scale back the scheme. This will include the abolition of the requirement to register with the Scheme and its monitoring requirements, and the reduction in the range of posts in which barred people cannot work or volunteer. The provisions also mean that the services of The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) will be merged and a single, new Non-Departmental Public Body created in place of the previous two organisations.

The new organisation will be called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). The planned operational date for the DBS is by the end of November 2012.

 

ISA8ISA Press Release

Please see the ISA's response to the NHS Information Service's announcement this week that 96,000 of the most vulnerable people in our society were allegedly abused in the last year. 

 

ISA5The Review

On February 11 2011 the Coalition Government published the findings of its Review into the Vetting and Barring Scheme. You can read the report at www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime/vetting-barring-scheme/

Key recommendations from the VBS Review include:

- the merging of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) to form a streamlined new body providing a proportionate barring and criminal records checking service;

- a large reduction of the number of positions requiring checks to just those working most closely and regularly with children and vulnerable adults;

- portability of criminal records checks between jobs to cut down on needless bureaucracy;

- an end to a requirement for those working or volunteering with vulnerable groups to register with the VBS; and

- stopping employers who knowingly request criminal records checks on individuals who are not entitled to them.

We are currently awaiting further details and will be working with the Home Office, the Department for Education, the Department of Health and the CRB to help implement the new arrangements.

The Coalition Government has confirmed that until all the appropriate legislation has been introduced and the new arrangements are established, the existing responsibilities of employers and the ISA will remain.

These include:

A person who is barred from working with children or vulnerable adults will be breaking the law if they work or volunteer, or try to work or volunteer with those groups.

An organisation which knowingly employs someone who is barred to work with those groups will also be breaking the law.

If your organisation works with children or vulnerable adults and you dismiss or remove a member of staff or a volunteer because they have harmed a child or vulnerable adult, or you would have done so if they had not left, you must tell the Independent Safeguarding Authority.

What's New



  • 09 November 2011
  • The Safe Network
    Practical safeguarding information & advice for community, voluntary & other groups.
    09 November 2011

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