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Appendix 1: Scenarios
Discussion 1: 12:00-12:45
Theme: coverage of the workforce
Issue: who should be within the scope of the scheme and who is responsible for requiring the check?
Scenario: Mrs Smith is a self-employed dancing teacher and rents out a local authority-owned hall to give lessons to children in groups of 10-20. One of the parents wants to make sure that she is not barred from working with children.
Consider:
Who can require the check?
Is there a role for the Local Authority and/or the parent?
What information should be disclosed and who should have access to the information subsequently provided by the Central Barring Unit?
Should this vary depending on whether it is a personal employer (i.e. parent) or local authority?
Theme: costs and lifetime of disclosure
Issue: a finite lifetime enables identity information to be updated. What arrangements need to be made to cover significant changes in an applicants' identity (marital status, address, sex change operation etc)?
Scenario: Mrs Jones' full vetting and barring disclosure check was undertaken when she started working as a teacher in Edinburgh in 1997. In 2001 she left the UK, working abroad in various posts until her return to the country in 2005 where she applies for a teaching post in London. She has since got married and has changed her surname.
Consider:
What mechanisms should exist so that Mrs Jones details are kept up to date?
Should there be a requirement on an individual to notify the scheme if they remove themselves from the UK workforce for any reason or change their identity information?
What happens is she has lost her unique registration number and original disclosure check?
Theme: information sharing
Issue: how to ensure that information goes to all current employers and no previous (expired) employers?
Scenario: Mr Simpson works part-time as a teaching assistant in a primary school. In addition to this work he is involved with a number of voluntary organisations, frequently becoming involved in new groups. He had a full vetting and barring disclosure check done when he took up the post as a teaching assistant and has subsequently been able to let the voluntary organisations he works for access the system to confirm he is not barred from working with children.
Consider:
What would Mr Simpson's new employers wish to see / should see when they access the system to check?
If his barred status alters, who should be notified - Mr Simpson, current organisations he is involved with, relevant regulatory bodies?
If his barred status doesn't alter but there is new information about him, should this be notified to anyone?
Who should be responsible for letting the Central Barring Unit know when Mr Simpson left a post & so that organisation has no legitimate right/interest in any information about him?
What checks should be done if some of the voluntary work involves working with adults at risk rather than children?
Discussion 2: 14:00-14:45
Theme: Central barring unit
Issue: what should the criteria be for putting someone on the barred list -- for children -- for adults at risk? Should there be one list or two?
Scenario: An individual working in an adult care home misleads a resident conning them out of a large sum of money. They are subsequently placed on the list of people disqualified from working with adults at risk after the central barring unit has considered the information provided by the referring organisation.
Consider:
Are there different tests that should be applied when considering whether someone is unsuitable to work with children and whether unsuitable to work with adults at risk?
Should the individual also be able to be considered for placing on the disqualified from working with children's list?
Where the incident pre-dates the new scheme and led to a conviction, what thresholds for barring on conviction and non-conviction information should be applied by the Central Barring Unit (i.e. high threshold whereby serious conviction is trigger, or low level where a wide range of 'soft' information or culmination of concern might trigger a bar)?
What are the implications for individuals, organisations, workforce and users of services of the thresholds and what are the issues to consider?
Theme: barred lists
Issue: what action should an organisation be expected to take when notified that one of their workers, or someone they are recruiting, is provisionally listed?
Scenario: An organisation is informed that one of its staff has been provisionally listed pending the Central Barring Unit making its final determination. The individual is entitled to continue to work whilst the determination is made.
Consider:
What steps would you take on notification of the individual's provisional listing where he is an existing employee/or where he is a potential new recruit?
Are there risk assessment tools and processes you could apply?
How would the length of time taken to conclude the determination impact on what you might do?
A week later the provisionally listed individual leaves the organisation. Should you be required to take any action. If so, what should that be?
Theme: implementation issues
Issue: what are the resourcing, training and information needs of users, employers and regulatory bodies in using the new scheme?
Scenario: it's a few days after the new scheme has come into effect. You are considering making: an application; a referral; ….. what do you need to carry this out?
Consider:
With whom would you discuss your considerations?
What guidance would you like to be available if you were considering making an application/referral?
If there was an element of phasing of introduction of the new scheme, what would you suggest would be the priority posts/sectors?
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