Karate Issues - Home Office Press Release regarding the Independent Safeguarding Authority
1 April 2008
Changes to checks for those working with children and vulnerable adults will start from October 2009. The fees structure for the scheme has also been set.
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.
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.
Home Office Minister Meg Hillier said: 'The Independent Safeguarding Authority is at the heart of the Government's drive to increase the protection of vulnerable members of our society.
'The 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.
Individuals wishing to undertake paid employment while engaging with vulnerable groups will pay a one-off fee of £64. The fee will consist of two components: an ISA registration fee of £28 and a CRB enhanced disclosure, currently £36, which provides employers with details of information held on police records about potential staff members.
However, there will be no cost for volunteers.
Sir Roger Singleton, ISA Chairman said: 'The Independent Safeguarding Authority will provide a groundbreaking vetting and barring service to prevent those deemed unsuitable from working with children or vulnerable adults from October 2009.
'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.'
Notes to Editors:
1. The ISA was established in January 2008 after being created by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. The scheme is one of 31 recommendations in the Bichard report.
2. The overriding aim of the ISA will be to help avoid harm, or risk of harm, to children and vulnerable adults. It will aim to do this by preventing those who are deemed unsuitable to work with children and/or vulnerable adults from gaining access to them through their work.It will do this by:working in partnership with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), which will gather information on a person who will or wishes to work in regulated or controlled activity with vulnerable groups; using this information to decide on a case-by-case basis if an individual is poses a risk of harm to vulnerable groups; and securely storing information about people’s ISA status for employers and voluntary organisations to use when they are recruiting.
3. The scheme will be largely self-financing. Individual applicants wishing to seek work with vulnerable groups engaging in regulated or controlled activities will have to pay a fee of £64. The fee will consist of two components – a CRB enhanced disclosure which currently costs £36 and the cost of an ISA registration which will be £28.Volunteers will not have to pay a registration fee.
4. The ISA is a Non-Departmental Public Body. It will be based in Darlington and it will consist of a small Board of public appointees and up to 300 ISA employees. The employees will be highly skilled and trained to make barring decisions.
To view the following statement visit the Home Office site using the link below
http://press.homeoffice.gov.uk/press-releases/independent-authority-go-live
For a fact sheet click here
What does this mean for Karate?
Apparently Karate falls into the Regulated Activity category which regulates any activity allowing contact with children or
vulnerable adults that is in a specified place
frequently or intensively and any activity that involves people in certain
defined positions of responsibility.
‘Regulated activity’ is when the activity is frequent
(once a month or more) or ‘intensive’ (takes place on
three or more days in a 30-day period).
How does ‘regulated activity’ work?
• Anyone providing a regulated activity must be registered with the ISA.
• It will be a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison, for a barred individual to take part in a regulated activity for any length of time.
• It will be a criminal offence for an employer to take on an individual in regulated activity if they fail to check that person’s status.
• It will be a criminal offence for an employer to allow a barred individual, or an individual who is not yet registered with the ISA, to work for any length of time in any regulated activity.
For certain organisations and posts it is also necessary to carry out a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check on applicants.
Existing employees
- You will need to ensure that existing employees are ISA-registered.
- First you should ask those who have not been previously checked by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) to apply for ISA registration.
- Next you should ask those who have been CRB checked to apply, beginning with staff whose CRB checks are the oldest.
It is the individual applicant’s responsibility to apply to register with the ISA. If they have not applied for registration you can’t employ them. It is your responsibility to check a potential employee or volunteer’s status. If an applicant is not ISA-registered they have either not applied or are on an ISA Barred List.
You will not be charged for checking someone’s ISA status.
Once you have registered your interest in an individual as their employer, you will automatically be contacted should their status change – that is, if new information leads to an ISA decision to bar them.
In order to continuously monitor ISA-registered individuals, the Independent Safeguarding Authority need information from employers.
Employers, professional and regulatory bodies, and child/adult protection teams in local authorities will be under a duty to refer relevant information to the ISA.
All other employers of those working with children or vulnerable adults may provide information to the ISA.
As a parent employing someone to look after your children you are not obliged to check if they are ISA-registered, but you are free to do so for the extra reassurance this can offer.
If you wish to refer information about someone to the ISA you should do this through a statutory agency such as social services or the police. They will be able to investigate the matter and refer information to the ISA if appropriate.
You can apply for registration through your employer if you have one, or if you are applying for a job, through your prespective employer. If you are self-employed – as a childminder, for example – you will need to apply yourself.
If you are already employed to work with children or vulnerable adults and have had a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check, you will need to apply for ISA registration in due course.
If you are employed to work with children or vulnerable adults and have not been CRB checked you will need to apply for ISA registration as early as possible.
In both cases you will need to pay a small one-off fee. Once you have paid for registration the ISA will give you a personal ISA Registration Number and you remain on their database even if you change employers.
If you are a volunteer and you work or want to work with vulnerable people you will need to apply to register with the ISA in exactly the same way as an employee. The only difference is that the ISA do not charge an application fee for volunteers.
If you have a record of unsuitability for working with vulnerable groups or if you have committed certain offences, the ISA may not be able to register you. Instead you will be put on an ISA Barred List and may not be able to work with vulnerable people.
If you apply for a job with children or vulnerable adults when you know you have been barred you could be fined or face imprisonment.
Your privacy
ISA registration does not mean that they make your details available to the general public. Only employers will be able to access your information – and only after you give them your ISA Registration Number. Employers will only be able to check that you are in fact ISA-registered. Only ISA case workers and the police will have access to information that the ISA hold about you.
Make sure you know what you are expected to do as the new vetting service is introduced in managed phases.
From October 2009
- New job applicants will need to apply for ISA registration.
- Employers and voluntary organisations working with children and vulnerable adults cannot recruit workers who are not ISA-registered.
From 2010
- Existing employees and volunteers with no CRB check must apply for ISA registration.
- Existing employees and volunteers with CRB checks will also need to apply for ISA registration, starting with staff whose CRB checks are the oldest.
For more information visit the Independent Safeguarding Authority website: