Hi,
I wonder how many other people have experienced a situation like me.
Until recently I was a student social worker and have just completed my degree. following my second year placement, I offered a position in a local Authority team, (The same team who I had spent the previous 4 months as a student - with an active CRB.) It then became clear that to take this position I would need a new CRB (At the expense of the tax payer). So it came and I started work. Then approx 8moths later in my third year my temporary contract of employment ceased due to my final six month practice placement(Which was within the same Local Authority - but now as a student my student CRB became relevant again.).
Anyway, I was then asked by the same Authority to apply for a job with them, so I did. Then I was told.........I would need another CRB....(Costing the tax payer another £38.00) This antequated process also means that I will be out of work for another 4-6 weeks too. What poppycock and how frustrating. What a waste of money.... Over the past three years it has cost the tax payer over £114 + for me to be cleared to work in the same Authority whether as a student or a worker.
And before people say: "It is part of the safeguarding process" blah blah blah...........Yes I am very aware of that. but surely there must be a more efficient and better way. Perhaps each worker gets one CRB which remains active for perhaps 3 years. When applying for a new job you produce the CRB to H/R or your manager. Then an approved/designated person with the relevant authority checks your identity face to face with supporting evidence i.e. a passport or driving lisence. Having verrified your identity with your passport or driving lisence they could commence an electronic update check with the CRB organisations to verify there are no issues outstanding against your record/designated file. If there are none....you start work. This would no doubt help people into employment quicker and save money.
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Well we all know CRB's are not worth the paper they're written on. I would rather see a computerised system, so your LA pays for your CRB... you get a paper copy and they get a computerised copy which will automatically update and flag up if something gets added to it. The LA will have to pay extra for List 99 AND POVA list checks. Then when you leave the LA they just click cancel or something and then it cancels updating yours. Or make it so it only updates certain crimes or something. But I rekon that would safeguard more and be more cost effective in the long run.
I renewed my CRB 2 weeks before leaving my last post and still had to do one for my new post. It's like an MOT-only valid on the date it is done. Therefore, if you commit an offence the day after, the check is no longer accurate.
If you commit an offence and stay in the same job, your employers may only find out somewhere down the line-possibly 2-3 years later, so what you suggest, Andy_Pandy, would address this, but would still cost money in the same way a check does-someone has still got to update the information on a computer.
If you start a new job-they have a responsibility to undertake their own checks, they should not be borrowing information from someone else's checks.
I don't think the system does work to protect children-think Ian Huntley, no offences, but lots of 'police intelligence'. Much like a lot of the families we work with as we are working on balance of probability (this person presents a likely risk) and the law is working on beyond reasonable doubt. Local children's safeguarding boards are working to share this info at that level. Seems to me this is more likely to be a real safeguard.
The ISA's Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) was going to introduce a quick live method to check on an individual's suitability of working with children or vulnerable adults, but as the Coalition decided to suspend the Oct 2010 introduction who knows what will become the new system in the future. The Royal College of Nursing had also instigated a Judicial Review against the VBS, based upon what work would be regulated and how mere suspicion and unfounded claims could be recorded against a ISA registered individual. Don't forget if the VBS had been implemented you would have had to get a new CRB disclosure and paid to register with the ISA at £84.
The delays in sharing data relate mosty to Police forces and not the CRB.
Currently any change of employer requires a new Disclosure and that of course throws up the issues you raise, but any system will always create problems but it is whether on balance such costs outweigh risks.
The CRB has now allows employers to submit electronic applications for disclosures.
I do think the core issue is that the process can put off the likes of people who want to be volunteers
I would like Disclosures to be portable backed up by the duty to check the ISA VBS register every time new employment or volunteering or regulated involvement with children or vulnerable adults is engaged and a note of this is recorded on the ISA registered individuals record.
I think it could be useful to allow a Disclosure to formally be portable and valid for one year, which seem to be the de facto standard within for agency workers.
Concerning Huntley, the Police service did not share information and importantly hew was using his mother' Maiden name a his surname.
There is also the issue that a Chief Police Office may issue a confidential letter to an employer, alongside a copy of the applicants Disclosure and this letter may bar the worker, though this is what I understand the ISA is for.
Don't forget a duty exists for Social Workers to inform the GSCC of any reasons that may bar them and employers have a duty to alert the GSCC of any barring reasons or initiated or investigations into disciplinary matters. And as all those GSCC reports show many Social Workers get struck off for various forms of nefarious behavior and not all of it would to captured by any current form of Disclosure. ISA circling the drainhttp://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/09/safeguarding_isa/
locums are not employed by councils directly, they are employed by agencies so that is why change of place of work does not affect the CRB. But if locum changes agency or is on more that one agencies books they do require a CRB.
My concern would be that social workers who have come from outside Britain could have criminal record which as far as im aware does not show up on CRB.
I completely agree, CRB's are a waste of money with the number you have to have, and especially when they state on the back of the certificate that they are not responsible if the information on them is wrong!!! I have had to have one for every single job i've had since leaving school at 16 and also one for university being the only one that I paid for myself, the rest out of tax payers money, totalling £190.00
I agree that everyone should have one CRB that is portable and renewable every year/2 years!