As you may know, there’s a new system that’s been developed to try and protect chil­dren and vulner­able adults from abuse which means that a lot of people will have to register with an organ­isa­tion called the Independent Safeguarding Authority (the ISA), possibly as well as getting CRB checks (at least in the beginning).

This is a hope­fully help­ful and entirely unof­fi­cial summary of the inform­a­tion they’ve put on their website, and this one’s entirely in web form, for the crit­ics!

Who does­n’t need to register?

• Anyone under 16
• If you’re a friend look­ing after a child or vulner­able adult with no contract or partic­u­lar expect­a­tion of payment, that’s fine. It’s the same if you’re a family member (which includes living in the same house and treat­ing each other as family).
• If you’re a parent or friend of the child or adult who needs care and you hire someone to look after them, you don’t need to register, but all other employ­ers do.

If you’re not chan­ging your job or volun­teer­ing role you don’t have to apply until 2011, but employ­ers will prob­ably be asking you to apply earlier than that to get the paper­work over with.

If you’re a parent or guard­ian employ­ing home tutors, nannies or carers you can check if they’re registered with the ISA or not. If they’re on the banned list they should­n’t be look­ing after kids or vulner­able people, though – that’s illegal.

Who does need to register?

If you’re apply­ing for a new job or take up a new role from October 2009 you need to apply to the ISA, and get a CRB check. There’ll be a combined form out later on so you don’t have to do them separ­ately. (Ed: I think this is right, but I’m not entirely sure)

You need to be registered (either now or even­tu­ally) if you:

• Look after kids and vulner­able adults a lot, overnight, or have a lot of contact for short amounts of time, for example: teach­ing, train­ing, care, super­vising, advising, treat­ing kids or vulner­able adults, and ferry­ing people around.
• Are foster parents or look after foster­ing arrangements
• Are employed in childcare
• Are a school governor, director of social services or a trustee of some char­it­ies – any posi­tions of author­ity which give you respons­ib­il­ity for the welfare of childrens/vulnerable adults.

What is ISA regis­tra­tion going to involve?

The form isn’t out yet so we don’t know much about it. It will hope­fully be out by October 2009.

This is what we do know:

• you will need to supply valid ID with your application
• if when you apply the ISA find anything relev­ant they need to tell you about it.
• if they find noth­ing then they have to tell you that too – unless you’ve applied for an enhanced CRB check at the same time (where they will tell you anything you find anyway).
• you’ll be checked regu­larly to make sure the info is up to date and you haven’t done anything that would mean you get barred.
• you will have to pay a small fee, unless you’re a volun­teer and then it’s free.

If you’re no longer work­ing with chil­dren or vulner­able adults and can prove it, you can ask the ISA to stop record­ing you.

Who can see my info?

• Your employer can only see that you have registered, they can’t see the details.
• ISA case work­ers and the police will be able to see details.
• If you’re on a register like the Teaching Council or Medical Council, the people who look after the register are allowed to find out whether you’re registered with the ISA, barred, or being invest­ig­ated for possible barring.

What happens after I’ve got my registration?

Once you’ve got your ISA regis­tra­tion, your employ­ers, social care agen­cies, local author­it­ies and other public health organ­isa­tions will have to report to the ISA on the way you act with the chil­dren or vulner­able adults in your care.

Parents and private compan­ies that want to bring the ISA’s atten­tion to your beha­viour will have to go through an intermediary.

If you harm a child or vulner­able adult, cause them harm indir­ectly, put them at risk of getting hurt, attempt to harm them, or if you ask or encour­age someone else to hurt them, it may go on your record or get you put on the barred list.

If I’m barred, can I work with chil­dren or vulner­able adults at all?

If you are on a barred list, you can still do these things as long as your employer makes sure things are safe and within the rules:

• Support work in a general health settings, the NHS and further educa­tion. (Like clean­ers, care­takers, shop work­ers, cater­ing staff, car park attend­ants and receptionists.)
• If you work for an organ­isa­tion that has access to sens­it­ive records about chil­dren and vulner­able adults.
• Support work in adult social care. (Like day centre clean­ers and those with access to social care records.)

So what’s illegal now that wasn’t before?

You can be sent to prison or fined up to £5000 for newly employ­ing an unre­gistered or barred person to work with chil­dren or vulner­able adults. It’s illegal for employ­ers not to check if somone is registered.

It’s also illegal to do anything you have to be registered to do, if you are not registered or you’re barred.

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Corinne Pritchard

Information Designer at Simply Understand

I believe design and design­ers can and should make the world a better place. I love design­ing things that help people under­stand complex ideas.

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