Twenty months and one political scandal later, the legislation needed toimplement Sir Michael Bichard's suggestions for improving childprotection is now before Parliament.
In essence, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill centres on a singlepolicy - the creation of a register of everyone barred from working withchildren. The register will combine information from a range of existingchild protection-related sources and registers, including the CriminalRecords Bureau, the Protection of Children Act List and List 99. Whileit's not the approach Bichard recommended - he proposed a register ofpeople allowed to work with children - it has been welcomed bychildren's organisations.
Elaine Peace, UK director of children's services at NCH, says the Bill"rightly reinforces that child protection is everyone'sresponsibility".
Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, agrees: "We stronglysupport the aims of the Bill. It should mean a simpler system andgreater peace of mind for parents."
The creation of the list is backed by tough penalties for employers,including recruitment agencies, who let barred persons work withchildren, as well as any barred person who does such work.
It will be a criminal offence to knowingly employ a barred person in arestricted role, backed by a fine of up to 5,000 and/or a jailterm of up to five years (Children Now, 8-14 March). It will also be anoffence to let people you suspect of being on the barred list work withchildren.
And failing to carry out proper checks before letting someone take partin restricted work with children will also be an offence.
The Bill prohibits barred persons managing or supervising those who workwith children, even if they do not have direct contact with thosechildren.
The list of restricted activities covers almost all children's servicesincluding: teachers; anyone advising children on their physical,emotional or educational wellbeing; social workers; moderators ofchatrooms likely to be used by children; and medical staff. In addition,people included on the Children's Barred List will not be allowed to docertain jobs such as a director of children's services, a schoolgovernor, an operator of a local child index or a local councillor withany responsibility for or oversight of children's services.
But there are still concerns about whether the Bill is strong enough ondealing with people from abroad. "At the moment, it's hard to do acriminal record check on people from overseas since each country doesthis differently and there's no automatic sharing of data," says ZoeHilton, policy adviser, child protection at the NSPCC. "It's a reallydifficult issue to solve but maybe employers should have to show they'vemade a proper effort to check the background and references of employeesfrom overseas."
The management of the Children's Barred List will be the responsibilityof a new organisation, the Independent Barring Board. It will determinewho should be included or excluded from the list and deal with appealsagainst their decisions.
But while it will ultimately control who stays on the list, the boardwill be required to add people to the list automatically should they bereferred by the Department for Education and Skills. The board must theninform the person they have been included and allow them to appealagainst their inclusion. To be included on the list, a person needs tomeet the Bill's "harm test" (see box).
Of course, the Bill still needs to make its way through Parliamentbefore it becomes law and work on creating the Children's Barred Listcan begin.
Tim Loughton, the Tory shadow children's minister, says the Bill is agood start but some of the details need to be looked at more closely'such as allowing parents to check that childminders are not barred. "Weneed to look at who gets access to the barred list," he says. "What wedon't want is access leading to witch hunts where people find out theinformation and then publish it, resulting in a posse going off to torchpeople's houses."
But Peace says that while data protection is important, parents musthave access to the information. "It's acceptable if we're going toprotect children," she says.
Ensuring the list can distinguish between the reasons why someone isreferred for inclusion is also important, Loughton adds. "While it isagainst the law, a 17-year-old who had sex with a 15-year-old girlfriendor boyfriend is on a different scale from a convicted paedophile whodownloads child porn from the internet."
Hilton says the Bill should be made clearer: "We do have concerns abouthow clear it is on what activities are regulated. For example, the Billcovers internet chatroom moderators but not people operating telephonehelplines for children."
Finally, there are concerns about the implementation of themeasures.
The Government plans to spend 16.6m over the next three yearssetting up the list and the Independent Barring Board, and says bothwill be up and running in 2008. Achieving this is important saysPeace.
"The success of this Bill will be measured against the speed at whichthey can do it, the ease of access to information for employers andparents, and the resources available to keep employers up to date withchanges to the list," she says.
- See feature, p22
KEY POINTSTo be included on the Children's Barred List a person must have:- Harmed a child- Caused a child to be harmed- Put a child at risk of harm- Attempted to harm a child- Incited another to harm a child
