MYTH BUSTING ('Vetting & Barring Scheme' - ISA): SOME SCENARIOS
From: ‘Department for Children, Schools and Families’ (4th November 2009)
When you won't have to register with the ISA:
There has been some confusing media coverage recently about when the Vetting and Barring Scheme will require people to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). We want to set the record straight. The Scheme does not apply where an arrangement is a private family arrangement or an arrangement is made personally between friends, and is not on a commercial basis.
Whether the Scheme’s requirement to register with the ISA will apply depends in particular on two key principles:
· If an activity is arranged by an organisation (as opposed to being a private arrangement).
· If that activity is ‘frequent’ (once a week or more with the same people/group) or ‘intensive’ (4 occasions a month or more with the same people/group) and/or overnight.
Examples of when the Scheme will not require you to ISA-register:
1) An elderly person being kept company by a teenager from a local school.
The elderly person is not doing work (paid or unpaid) with the teenager. The elderly person is in receipt of the volunteering by the teenager, so the Scheme doesn't apply to the elderly person.
2) A teenager keeping an elderly person company for a couple of hours a week.
The teenager is not caring for, or supervising, the elderly person, so the Scheme doesn’t apply to the teenager.
3a) A parent making an arrangement with a friend, to take the friend’s children to play football at a club;
3b) A parent who takes part in a rota with other parents to take each others’ children to school once a week;
3c) A parent who arranges with another parent to take that parent’s child home from a youth club (e.g. because that child’s parent is delayed at work).
3d) A parent in sole charge of a football kick-about in the park with his and his friend’s children, which he arranged with his friend;
3e) A parent arranging, with the parents of her child’s friends, for the friends to stay at her home for a sleepover.
In each of the five examples above (3a-3e), the parent is making a personal arrangement. Even if friend/s will return the favour, this is not on a commercial basis. The Scheme does not apply to any of the parents.
4) A parent supervising their own child at a parent and toddler group where 70 parents come with their children and remain for two hours a week without any other staff.
The parent is not supervising anyone else’s child, so the Scheme does not apply to the parent as “the parents … are responsible for their own children during the session”.
5) A parent visiting a school, to see the school play, or discuss their child’s progress with school staff, etc.
The parent is not doing any work for the school, so the Scheme does not apply to the parent.
6) An individual (16 or over) babysitting children, whose parent is a relative or friend of the individual.
Where the parent is a relative, it is a family arrangement; where the parent is a friend and it’s not on a commercial basis, it is a personal arrangement; so the Scheme does not apply to the individual.
7) An individual (16 or over) helping to run a stall at the annual parish fete, where some of the customers might be unaccompanied children.
Serving customers at the stall who are children is not an activity covered by the Scheme; working for the parish fete is not working for an organisation covered by the Scheme; therefore the Scheme does not apply to the individual.
8) An employee providing first-aid as an ancillary part of their job.
Ancillary first aid is an exception to the Scheme, so the Scheme does not apply to the employee because of the provision of the first-aid.
9) A volunteer who makes sets and sews costumes for youth theatres.
The volunteer is not supervising or training children, so the Scheme does not apply to the volunteer.
10) A player at a tennis club, who arranges with the parents of junior players to regularly take the junior players to tournaments in his car.
The player is making a personal arrangement, so the Scheme does not apply to the player.
11) A musician in a band that plays at evening events at a school, organised by the school's Parent Teacher Association.
The musician is not doing work for the school with the opportunity of contact with the children, so the Scheme does not apply to the musician.
Further examples in relation to volunteering with adults:
12) A volunteer who organises a bridge club, and regularly provides transport to another club for players, some of whom are elderly.
The volunteer is not exclusively transporting people specifically because they have particular needs because of their age, so the Scheme does not apply to the volunteer.
13) A friend cleans the flat of a pensioner in sheltered housing each week, not for commercial profit.
The friend is making a personal arrangement, so the Scheme does not apply to the friend.
Above are examples of when the Scheme will not require an individual to ISA-register for work (paid or unpaid) in relation to children. For ease of reference, example 2 covers the recent media reporting of mistaken 'fears' about under-18s working with vulnerable adults, while 12 and 13 give further examples in relating to volunteering with adults.)
When will the Scheme not require ISA registration?
Registration will not be required for family or personal arrangements, no matter how frequent. So agreements between parents to look after each others’ children will not fall under the Scheme. See examples at the start of this document.
Examples of work which a barred person must not do, but where the Scheme will not require a person to ISA-register include:
a) A volunteer who does one-off or infrequent volunteering, such as accompanying children on a day-trip organised by a school. A one-off activity will fall outside the Scheme’s requirement to register.
b) An employee who supervises a work experience student. Mentoring (or working alongside) work experience students will be an exception to the Scheme’s requirement to register. The Government will recommend that employers should continue a risk-based approach to decide whether the employer will choose to require staff to register. Updated work experience guidance will take account of the Scheme.
NOTE: Please be aware that changes may possibly be made to the scheme, so for further/update information, please visit www.isa-gov.org.uk
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