Vetting and Barring Guidance

The new Vetting and Barring Scheme aims to protect
children and vulnerable adults by ensuring that people who are judged to present a risk of harm are not allowed to work with them.

Download the full guidance here:

http://www.isa.homeoffice.gov.uk/pdf/VBS_guidance_ed1_2010.pdf  

The guidance has been developed for employers, employees, volunteers and volunteering organisations to provide important information about how the Scheme works and to help you to prepare for registration. It covers:
• the scope of the Scheme – what activity is and is not
within its remit
• how the registration process will work
• how employees and volunteers, as well as employers
and volunteering organisations, will be affected, and
• when all this will happen.

Barring decisions are now made by an independent body of experts, the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), and follow a clear and structured judgement process, which is about assessing the risk of future harm based on the information that is known about the individual.

An individual’s Vetting and Barring Scheme registration
will be fully portable, and any prospective or subsequent
employer will be able to check an individual’s registration
status online, free of charge. Employers can also choose
to be notified, free of charge, if an employee’s registration
status changes.

Even though registration is mandatory for most employees
and volunteers working with children and vulnerable
adults, there are some circumstances where the Scheme
does not apply.

Activities carried out in the course of family or personal
relationships are completely outside the remit of the Scheme. These are also a number of specific exceptions which are set out in detail in Section 2 of the guidance. These include the exceptions that the Government agreed in response to the recommendations made by Sir Roger Singleton in Drawing the Line, his report on the Vetting and Barring Scheme which was published in December 2009.