News

• Criminal checks for home care workers introduced

Home care staff will be able to continue delivering personal care in the homes of children and vulnerable adults without needing to be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau, writes Katie Leason.

The long awaited first set of standards for the domiciliary care sector, finally published last week after being delayed twice last year, do not require home care workers to have a CRB check before being employed.

Instead, staff  "are required to provide a statement that they have no criminal convictions or to provide a statement of any criminal convictions that they do have", and will need to be checked against the sex offenders register, the General Social Care Council Register and, where appropriate, the Protection of Children Act list.

This is in contrast to the draft domiciliary care standards, which said that new staff should only be appointed after the completion of a criminal record check, "necessary because of the nature of personal domiciliary care".

Bill McClimont, chairperson of the United Kingdom Home Care Association, described the omission of CRB checks as "regrettable".

"This can only be a temporary moratorium in a measure which is essential to ensure the protection of vulnerable people," he said.

McClimont added that the standards, which include an emphasis on training and qualifications, were likely to result in increased costs for local authorities.

The department of health insisted that the government remained firmly committed to improving protection for children and vulnerable people, and would seek to introduce CRB checks at the earliest possible opportunity.