9.7.1 Vetting of Staff and Visitors |
Contents
1. Context
The Children Act 1989, responded to the need to carefully select and vet staff following the first revelations of children and young people having been abused whilst placed in Children's Homes.
A subsequent report into the recruitment, selection and management for residential childcare was published which, gave specific and detailed recommendations for recruitment and selection processes ('Choosing With Care' N. Warner, HMSO, 1993).
The Care Standards Act, 2000, The Children's Homes Regulations 2011 and the National Minimum Standards for Children's Homes, 2011 followed in the wake of further abuse investigations and subsequent inquiries (Lost In Care, 2000, Learning the Lessons, 2001).
Furthermore the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act, 2000 provides the definition of volunteers who work with children
All of the above, as well as the Children's Homes (Amendment) Regulations 2011, Associated Guidance (Volume 5) and National Minimum Standards, provide the context for this procedure, in which the need to carefully select, recruit and vet staff, volunteers and visitors to children's homes is given particular emphasis.
2. Scope
The following procedure supports careful selection and vetting processes of all staff and volunteers working with children and young people in the Home and this includes ancillary staff and those employed on a contractual and/or sessional basis.
Additionally the procedure covers the monitoring of visitors to the home in order to help prevent children and young people being exposed to potential abusers.
The following procedure should be read in conjunction with Wakefield Council Intranet, Human Resources, Workforce Development, and Recruitment Process.
3. Procedure
| 1.0 | The Recruitment process should be in line with Schedule 2 of the Children’s Homes Regulations, 2011. This process should be recorded in writing and should provide evidence of all the requirements of Schedule 2. |
| 1.1 | The recruitment of all staff (including ancillary, agency, contractual and sessional staff) and volunteers who work with children in the home (as defined by the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000), should include disclosure checks through the Criminal Records Bureau checking system. |
| 1.2 | The process for recruiting all staff and volunteers who work within residential child care should include an effective system to decide on appointment and refusal of appointment, in the light of any criminal convictions or other concerns about suitability that are declared or discovered through the recruitment process. |
| 1.3 | It must be ensured that all agency staff have successfully passed all checks, within the previous 12 months. Each agency worker must have an individual file where evidence of the successful completion of the necessary checks (and other mandatory information) is recorded. |
| 1.4 | New staff and volunteers must not start work until the necessary checks are successfully completed and evidenced. |
| 2.0 | Reasonable steps must be taken to ensure the safety of young people when they are driven in taxis, for instance to and from schools. This either should involve staff accompanying young people or using taxi drivers who have successfully passed Criminal Records Bureau checks in respect of a person working with children. |
| 3.0 | Information about the home’s Statement of Purpose should be available to all applicants for posts within the home. |
| 4.0 | When there are any childcare concerns, which raise questions about suitability with respect to existing or past members of staff who are seeking further work with children, these concerns must be clearly stated in any employment references that are provided. |
| 5.0 | All visitors, including parents of young people, staff and colleagues from other homes or service areas to the home must be signed in and out of the visitors’ book. Others, not covered by the visitor’s book, should be recorded in the daily logbook, for instance friends of young people. |
| 5.1 | Any staff or visitor to the home who do not fall into the remit of the Criminal Records Bureau should not be allowed unsupervised access to the home and the young people living there. Visiting parents and relatives should not be given unsupervised access to other young people in the home. Staff must take responsibility for monitoring and managing visitors to the home. |
| 5.2 | Young people (and where applicable their parents) should be given clear written and verbal guidance on the arrangements for receiving their own visitors to the home. |
End