This Policy summarises the broad arrangements within the Organisation that assure compliance with the requirements of the Disclosure & Barring Scheme (“DBS”) as it applies to the Organisation’s business strategies. This is intended purely as a summary document:

1. GENERAL INFORMATION:

1.1 The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, required any person who will be working with children or Vulnerable adults to be registered with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), which had been set up under the Act. This was known collectively as the Vetting & Barring Scheme (VBS).

1.2 The new Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 now merges the ISA / VBS into a single new entity - this is the Disclosure & Barring Scheme (DBS), and its provisions are effective from December 2012.

1.3 The key functions of the DBS are two-fold:

1.3.1 to provide Criminal Records Checks;

1.3.2 to set up and maintain 2 separate lists of persons who would be barred from carrying out a “regulated activity”(i.e. having direct contact with children or vulnerable adults as part of their job duties). These 2 lists are as follows:

• Children’s Barred List

• Adults Barred List

2. POLICY:

2.1 The Organisation’s service user base involves contact with Vulnerable Adults and Older People / Families and Children (----- -----) in the Domiciliary Care environment. All persons wanting to work with children or vulnerable adults delivering the Organisation’s Domiciliary Care Services will be required to be checked and screened through the DBS. The Organisation acknowledges that this is a legal requirement, and that it is an offence to employ a person to work with children or vulnerable adults who has not been satisfactorily checked through the DBS. This will apply to ALL staff, including full-time, part-time and volunteer staff.

2.2 DBS checking and screening will form an integral part of the Organisation’s Staff Recruitment Procedure, ref. Policy No: 1200.This will include part-time and volunteer staff. Failure to obtain satisfactory DBS checks will automatically disqualify a job applicant from employment with the Organisation.

2.3 In the event that, during their employment, an existing staff member harms a child or vulnerable adult, resulting In their dismissal or voluntary termination of their employment, the Organisation undertakes to inform the DBS of the circumstances.

FORMS REFERENCES:

Form No: 1-220 Criminal Records Disclosure - Risk Assessment