Criminal checks for home care staff waived

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.