Protection of Freedoms Act 2012Understanding the impact of the changes

4 March 2013Joy TottmanGovernance and Compliance Officer

The journey to here …

Significant changes introduced by the Protection of Freedoms Act

New definition of ‘Regulated

Activity’

Merging of ISA and CRB to form

DBS

Applicant only/

single certificate

Updating Service

(portability)?

Overview of Timelines for the Protection of Freedoms Act , 2012

201201 May Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 received Royal Assent

10 Sept New definition of Regulated Activity (unsupervised); Repeal of Controlled Activity; Repeal of registration and monitoring requirements; Repeal of additional information; 16 yrs is minimum age at which CRB check can be done; More rigorous 'relevancy' test for police re release of

information held locally on an Enhanced CRB check.

01 Dec Merger of Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) & Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) = Disclosure & Barring

Service (DBS)

2013 Spring Updating Service / Single Certificate

Summary of September 2012 Changes

New definition of Regulated Activity

Understand and apply new definition

Repeal of controlled activity

Define supervision in your context

Don’t ask for barred information for individuals with access to sensitive data

Repeal of additional information

Introduction of 16yrs old as minimum age for Disclosure

More rigorous relevancy test for when police release information held locally

No action

Repeal of registration and monitoring requirements

Don’t ask for Disclosures on under 16s

New definition of ‘Regulated Activity’

1. Required by law to refer an individual to ISA/DBS if remove them from Regulated Activity if they have harmed or may pose a risk of harm a child or adult at risk;

2. Only request barred information on individuals who are ‘IN’ Regulated Activity

3. Not knowingly employ a barred person in ‘Regulated Activity’

Why do you need to know about the new definition?

Fulfil your legal duties Ask for (only) the information you are entitled to see

New definition of ‘Regulated Activity’

What is the new definition?

Excludes supervised volunteers from new legal requirement (unless administering health or personal care to under 18s).

Supervision = ‘such day to day supervision as is reasonable in all circumstances for the purposes of protecting any children concerned’

New definition of ‘Regulated Activity’

Sport and recreation organisations responsible for defining supervision to the level that is reasonable in all of the circumstances to protect children

New definition of ‘Regulated Activity’

New definition of ‘Regulated Activity’

What do you need to do?

• Work up a definition of supervision that helps you determine in your environment who you are legally required to check;

• Work through all of the roles within your organisation and ask yourself:

1. Do they meet criteria for an enhanced check?2. Do they meet criteria for Regulated Activity and a

barred list check?

• Decide how you will communicate to your membership on who will be defined in ‘Regulated Activity’

Merger of CRB and ISA to form DBS

New branding

New questions on application forms:

Question 64 “are you entitled to know whether the applicant is barred from working with children?”

Question 65 “are you entitled to know whether the applicant is barred from working with adults?”

New application forms:

1st March – only DBS forms can be submitted

What do you need to know?

Single Certificate

Organisations no longer automatically sent a copy of the disclosure for individuals undertaking roles for them.

Applicant only copy being sent by DBS

Certain circumstances = request a copy from DBS

- Individual already in your workforce, subscribed to updating service and during your regular check on existing workforce you see their status has changed;

- You ask them to do a new disclosure;- You are aware the new disclosure has been issued with the new

content on it;- You have not received it from the individual in 21 days

Submit by e-bulk = notification if a disclosure is clear or has content on it

What will change?

Single Certificate

How will you get the disclosures from individuals?

How will you get the disclosures back to individuals?

What rules or regulations do you need to put in place to make this happen?

Will you use e-bulk? Will you chase all disclosures even the ones that say they are clear?

Do you have to switch to using an umbrella body to take advantage of e-bulk?

Model regulations for sports rulebooks

• When to chase for disclosures• When to suspend people• How to regulate the workforce to ensure

maximum compliance

What do you need to do?

Update Service

Individuals can choose to join an online updating service to help make their Disclosure more portable e.g. for the same type of roles with different organisations.

Individuals issued with a Disclosure and a unique number which they can show to multiple organisations – who can log on and check the validity of the Disclosure they have been shown.

You can log on at periodic intervals to check your workforce are still up to date.

The update service is free for volunteers to use (sign-up at point of application or within 14 days of receiving disclosure)

What will change?

Update Service

You may have some of your workforce on the update service and some of them not on the update service.

Disclosure are only portable for the same type of workforce and so it is limited portability but this has not been explained.

You won’t know if the content you see on an existing disclosure is tailored for a specific role or if there are omissions.

If there is a change in an individual’s status you have to ask the individual for a new disclosure and go through the process of getting the new disclosure from them.

You have to decide how often to log-on and re-check your workforce.

What are the challenges?

Actions

• Work out roles in your organisation• Communicate to membership on legal

requirements

New definition of ‘Regulated

Activity’

Merging of ISA and CRB to form

DBS

Single certificate

Updating Service

• Use new forms and terminology

• Look at process for managing single certificate

• Look at how and if you want workforce to use updating service

• Consider if you can manage this in-house

Questions