Legislation

SUMMARY

The key principles
The purpose of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 is to restrict contact between children and vulnerable adults and those who might do them harm. The barring aspects of the Act are due to become fully operational on 12 October 2009, but the requirements for employees to become ‘ISA-registered’ are not due to become mandatory until November 2010. Until 12 October 2009, the existing statutory safeguarding schemes for children and vulnerable adults, such as that contained in the Protection of Children Act 1999, will continue to operate, albeit in a modified form which is designed to ensure an orderly transition between the old and new regimes. This guide focuses on the elements of the Act which are concerned with children, rather than vulnerable adults.

While the 2006 Act itself is very complex, its key principles are straightforward. They are as follows:

(i) unsuitable persons should be barred from working with children (or vulnerable adults);

(ii) employers should have a straightforward means of checking that a person is not barred from working with children (or vulnerable adults);

(iii) suitability checks should not be one-offs: they should be an element of ongoing assessment of suitability to catch those who commit wrongs following a suitability check.

If these principles are straightforward, why is the Act in parts so complex? This is because of the number of qualifications and conditions attached to the key principles.