ADCS defends vetting and barring delays

The government announced last week that the new system, which should have gone live this autumn, would be delayed until next year.

It had already been pushed back from October 2008 to October 2009.

But John Harris, chair of the ADCS's families, communities and young people policy committee, said that the government should take as long as it needs to get the system right.

He said: "It is important to remember that the new scheme is not a replacement for an old broken system; it is an opportunity to improve the way that we screen adults who work with children, and it builds on the current system which has no cause for concern."

The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) took over responsibility for vetting and barring on 20 January 2009. Before that, the Department for Children, Schools and Families and the Department of Health shared the job.

From October 2009 the ISA will publish two barring lists, instead of the Protection Of Children Act (POCA), Protection of Vulnerable Adults (PoVA) and List 99.

The ISA was set up through the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, which followed the Bichard Inquiry into the murders of schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by school caretaker Ian Huntley in 2002.