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Home parents employment law ISA and nanny employment
Registration with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has been halted PDF Print E-mail

Information taken directly from the Independent Safeguarding Authority website. Visit www.isa-gov.org.uk to read more about the ISA.

In its recent document ‘The Coalition: Our Programme for Government’, the new Government set out its aim to ‘review the criminal records and vetting and barring regime and scale it back to common sense levels’.

In order to deliver this promise and carry out the remodelling, the Vetting and Barring Scheme will be halted. The first phase of registration meant that any person going into new employment where they would be working with children or vulnerable adults could become registered from 26 July  2010. Furthermore, they would legally have had to be registered before starting any new position from 1 November 2010. Today’s announcement has halted this.

Until further notice nanny agencies are no longer able to register nannies or employees, who are starting new positions, with the ISA.The ISA registration was to be delivered by the new CRB form which will be introduced from 28 June 2010. Old CRB forms which are being phased out will be used up until 26 July 2010 as planned. Sections relating to the ISA registration on the new forms will not be taken into account when applying for a CRB check.

Although the Scheme is halted whilst the Government undertakes its review, new safeguarding regulations introduced in October 2009 continue to apply. 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 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.

Read the Home Office’s full press release here

For the VBS to operate the ISA is reliant on employers to refer information regarding individuals they may suspect of harming a child or vulnerable adult. This includes private employers of nannies and nanny agencies. Private employers or parents should refer information to a statutory agency (eg. police, social services) who will investigate the matter and refer information to the ISA.Nanny agencies should refer information directly to the ISA.

Background to the VBS

The Vetting and Barring scheme aims to protect children and vulnerable adults by stopping those who pose a known risk from working with them.

It was designed as a response to the Bichard enquiry into the Soham Murders by Ian Huntley which called for better information sharing by police and vetting organisations.