UPDATING YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCEDURES - LATEST OBLIGATIONS FOR SAFE STAFFING. Mark Blois, Partner and Head of Education 18 October 2012

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1 UPDATING YOUR RECRUITMENT PROCEDURES - LATEST OBLIGATIONS FOR SAFE STAFFING Mark Blois, Partner and Head of Education 18 October 2012

2 Bit of history (1) Bichard Report in 2004 concentrated on soft information and made a number of safeguarding proposals and introduced the concept of regulated activity. By 2009, concern was expressed that the scheme was going too far and impacting on too many Sir Roger Singleton, Chair of the ISA carried out a review and reported his recommendations- Drawing the Line By amending the definition of regulated activity, two million people were no longer required to register

3 Regulated Activity Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education 2007: three times or more in a month, or overnight Sir Roger Singleton in Drawing the Line 2009: Frequent once a week or more Intensive four or more days a month or overnight

4 Bit of History (2) 15 June 2010 Theresa May ordered a full review, this resulted in the Protection of Freedoms Bill now the Protection of Freedoms Act How does this impact on policies and procedures? Only focus on what we have to work with at this stage

5 What we need to consider Current statutory guidance for recruitment what do you need to do? How the legal duty to refer impacts on your policies? How will the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) impact on your policies from December 2012?

6 RECRUITMENT GUIDANCE

7 Current guidance? We understand that the DfE are about to consult on update to guidance for the education sector until we see that we will not be sure how they will bring the new requirements in to practice

8 Guidance to follow Until then follow Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education 2007 ISA Referral Guidance 2010 ISA Vetting and Barring Scheme Guidance 2010

9 Recruitment and vetting guidance Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education 2007 Chapter 3 - Recruitment and Selection Chapter 4 - Recruitment and Vetting Checks Appendices Checklists and Flowcharts 35 pages of clear, concise guidance

10 Recruitment and selection Chapter 3 of the Guidance takes a step by step approach to safer recruitment Read in conjunction with Appendices 4 to 7: App 4 Recruitment Checklist App 5 Recruitment Flowchart App 6 Agency Staff Flowchart App 7 Volunteers Flowchart

11 Recruitment and selection Guidance applies to staff who are perceived by the children as a safe & trustworthy adult Three stages for safer recruitment practice: Planning and Advertising Interviewing Monitoring Written recruitment policy detailing all aspects of the process and linked to child protection policy

12 Elements of safer practice (1) Consider child protection issues at every stage of the process Where post is advertised, refer to commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children

13 Elements of safer practice (2) Consistent approach to obtaining, collating, analysing and evaluating information from and about applicants, including: Job description refers to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and suitability to work with children Obtain independent professional and character references that answer specific questions

14 Elements of safer practice (3) Face-to-face interview exploring suitability Verify successful applicants identity qualifications Confirm employment history Verify health and physical capacity for the job Check Children s and Vulnerable Adults barred lists and carry out enhanced CRB check

15 Recruitment and selection Appoint someone to head up the vetting, selection and recruitment procedures Monitoring recruitment & induction Continuing awareness

16 Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 Part 5 makes significant amendments to the vetting and barring regime: ISA and CRB to merge Registration and Controlled Activity to be repealed Regulated Activity redefined CRB process updated and fairer-allows for challenges CRB certificates are to be portable and can be checked online, they will only be sent to the individual In force from 10 September 2012

17 Vetting Checks Chapter 4 Recruitment guidance specifically covers: Teachers and other permanent staff Volunteers Certain positions have been removed and will no longer fall within regulated activity definition e.g. governors For the above, guidance requires a number of mandatory checks Must keep a single central record of checks The law has changed here but until we see the guidance we suggest checks and systems stay the same

18 Vetting Mandatory checks for all new staff working with children: Identity check Children and vulnerable adults barred lists check Confirm qualifications Confirm right to work in the UK (Appendix 5) Not required if applicant worked in child care post in last three months

19 Vetting Teachers and staff In addition to mandatory checks: Professional and character references Checks on previous employment history Agency/Supply staff same checks

20 Vetting Volunteers Can be supervised or unsupervised: Supervised volunteers will no longer fall within the definition of regulated activity Therefore no ability for barred list check Unsupervised volunteers - Enhanced CRB check likely to be advised

21 Vetting Contractors Emergency repairs or servicing equipment Building workers PFI contract staff e.g. private catering staff Again, there appears to be a position change removing them from Regulated Activity here but we need to see what the government consults on and what guidance will flow from that

22 Ability to work pending CRB (1) Ability to work pending CRB disclosure-safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in education-chapter 4 Head teachers, principals and local authorities have discretion to allow an individual to begin work within their schools or colleges pending receipt of the CRB Disclosure, but should ensure that the individual is appropriately supervised and that all other checks have been completed

23 Ability to work pending CRB (2) Request for CRB must be submitted before start work Appropriate supervision needs to reflect what is known about the person, their experience, nature of duties and level of responsibility they will carry Nature of the supervision should be specified and roles of staff undertaking supervision set out.

24 Single Central Record (SCR) Must maintain SCR of recruitment and vetting checks - paper or electronic record of checks carried out on: all staff and supply employed at the school supply staff engaged through an agency others who have regular contact with children including: volunteers others brought to school to provide additional instruction to pupils e.g. sports coaches, artists contractors

25 Single Central Record (SCR) The person responsible for entering information onto SCR must sign and date it to verify that they have checked the employee or volunteer s details No need to retain documents that are evidence of identity once they have been verified and the SCR contains the name of the person who did so Ofsted will allow correction of minor administrative error

26 Single Central Record (SCR) Administrative errors include: failure to record one or two dates failure to record or the name of the person that carried out the checks individual entries that are illegible No allowance will be made, for example, for breaches to the requirements for the ISA barred list and CRB disclosure

27 Timescales Disclosure and Barring Service in place for December 2012 All other changes in Spring 2013 at the earliest Statutory guidance expected beforehand

28 What will you need to do? Review policies and procedures Consider new guidance when it comes into force Make reference to DBS and new requirements What policies should you review? Recruitment Safeguarding Disciplinary/Misconduct Whistle blowing Allegations against staff Others?

29 Mark Blois, Partner and Head of Education Browne Jacobson LLP Tel: