The Scottish Government

Summary of The Act

• The Act plugs a gap in existing safeguards which allows unsuitable people to move from one child care post to another without detection if they have not been convicted of an offence.
• The Act provides for Scottish Ministers to keep the Disqualified from Working with Children List (DWCL).
• An individual working in a child care position, whether paid or unpaid, is to be referred to Scottish Ministers for inclusion on the DWCL, when they have harmed a child or put a child at risk of harm and have been dismissed or moved away from contact with children as a consequence.
• Organisations have a duty to refer such individuals to Scottish Ministers for possible inclusion on the DWCL.
• Failure to make a referral is an offence under the Act.
• The DWCL will also include those convicted of an offence against a child, when the court has referred them because it considers them to be unsuitable to work with children.
• Those on the DWCL (other than provisionally) are disqualified from working with children and will commit a criminal offence if they apply to or work with children.
• The Act extends disqualifications which already exist in England and Wales to Scotland too, except for those listed provisionally on the list kept for England and Wales under the Protection of Children Act 1999.
• It will be an offence for an organisation to knowingly employ a person to work with children if that person is disqualified from working with children.
• The Act provides safeguards for an individual including the right to appeal to a sheriff against inclusion on the DWCL.
• The fact that someone is disqualified from working with children will be released as part of a Disclosure for a child care position available from Disclosure Scotland.