Criminal Records Bureau Information

“Services2Sport is a new sports

coaching and development agency

who provide a complete support

service for sports coaches across

the Yorkshire and Humber region”

INDEPENDENT SAFEGUARDING AUTHORITY UPDATE

You may have seen the recent Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) announcement giving further details of the introduction of the ISA Scheme which will replace the current PoVA, PoCA and List 99 provisions. The Home Office announcement stated that the new Scheme will start in October 2009 and gave details of the fee for registering with the ISA which is £64. However, following this announcement there has been some confusion about the fee and so Disclosure News thought it would be useful to clarify the situation..

ISA Registration

A person can make a request to register with the ISA Scheme if they are currently working with the vulnerable or are considering this kind of job. The request for this Registration is made under the provision of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act rather that the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1975. It is not necessarily linked to an employment position, for example, private tutors who are self-employed, and are not currently eligible for a Disclosure, will be able to register with the ISA. This check will result in the issue of a notification of the ISA Registration and will cost the applicant £64.

ISA Registration and a Disclosure

Where an application for Registration with the ISA is made as part of a recruitment process that also requires a Disclosure, you can apply for both on the same form. The CRB Countersignatory must, of course, ensure that the post applied for meets the eligibility criteria for a Disclosure, just as they do now. This joint application will result in a Disclosure certificate and a notification of the ISA Registration. These two applications will be processed at a cost £64.

Where Your Money Goes.

The fee for registering with the ISA, meets the two administrative costs of the organisations involved in the process. When the ISA Registration application is made, the CRIB conducts the same checks as it does for an Enhanced Disclosure and provides the resultant information to the ISA to make a decision about barring, rather than supplying the information to the employer to make a recruitment decision. The additional cost of the check covers the administrative cost to the ISA, for:

How To Make an Application.

A new application form is currently in the design process and this will allow an application for either an ISA Registration, a Disclosure or a combined ISA Registration and Disclosure. Each application will be routed via a Registered Body since the applicant's identity still needs to be verified. These organisations may apply charges for their services.

What Information is Accessed and Released?

An application for ISA Registration will result in a check of the same information accessed by the CRB to conduct an Enhanced Disclosure. Any information found is considered against the barring criteria. If the conviction history is sufficient to warrant a bar, the applicant will receive notification and an explanation of the decision. If a person is barred then an employer may be committing an offence to employ them to work within the children or vulnerable adult sectors. The decision to employ is therefore largely taken out of the hands of a prospective employer. There are two work sectors -working with children and working with vulnerable adults and it is worth employers remembering that it is possible to be barred from one sector without necessarily being barred from the other.
Where a conviction history is not sufficient to warrant being barred the applicant will be registered by the ISA. For those organisations who are required by statute or regulatory bodies, to have a CRB check, this requirement will remain in place. The CRB check will continue to detail the full conviction history of an applicant and this will still be important for employers as some of this information may be insufficient to merit a bar, but still of concern to an employer. For example, convictions for theft may not be sufficient to bar a person, but if they were to work in a care home this information may be influential in the recruitment decision.

For more information on our coaching services please contact Iain Boyd on 01472 267404 or email i-boyd@btconnect.com

Benefits - Coaches

The process of becoming a member of S2S begins with signing up to full membership of S2S.

Up-skilling of coaches

For coaches, the benefits revolve around them being better qualified with easier access to career pathways and development. In order to be successful sports coaching needs to be able to provide career pathways and some form of sustainability. At present most coaches operate in a part-time capacity as the work is mainly sessional therefore by up-skilling and through cross-fertilisation, sports coaches will be in a better position to access full-time work either as employed or as self-employed through their own businesses.

Employment, Self-employment, Placement and Volunteering Opportunities

The sports coaching agency will also work as a broker to bring together employment, placement and volunteer vacancies so that coaches have a number of opportunities to access full time employment, self-employment, placements or volunteering opportunities. This will address the needs of both the employer and the sports coach, providing the employer with the added comfort and verification that the coach they are using has attained certain minimum operating standards and the coach with the added benefits of being able to access employment either through paid employment, self-employment, volunteering or through a placement combined with improved skills training.

Quality Mark

Whilst some NGBs are in the process of establishing licensing/registration schemes this is still limited and the quality of coaching provision is in the main being delivered with little monitoring to check whether coaches have up to date qualifications or are fit for purpose to deliver the activities. The sports coaching agency will address these issues through the monitoring of provision and through the quality mark which will incorporate existing NGB registration schemes and the forthcoming UKCC licensing scheme which should be in place by the end of 2008.

It is intended to utilise and up-skill Sports Development Officers and Community Sports Coaches to assist with the delivery of this element providing them with skills in observing coaches, mentoring, training and coaching the coaches.

Data Collection

Other added benefits will include automatic information collected from the coaches to provide data to organisations who are interested in the statistical information about the coaching profession and key information on the training needs required by coaches.

Coaches into Business

The sports coaching agency will also encourage and enable coaches to become self-employed and to operate as a business which will be regulated through the quality mark that is to be established. Whilst self-employed they will be able to access work through the agency they will also be in a better position, with a recognised quality standard renewable yearly, to negotiate work themselves. The North West Coaching Agency, which is being run as a pilot in that area with support from SportsCoach UK and Sport England, shows even after the first 6 months of operation that this is a key area for development.

Benefits - Employers

For employers the up-skilling and minimum operating standards will ensure that the standard and quality of coaching provision is both improved and maintained through the development and monitoring of sports coaching skills. The minimum operating standards are:

  • At least a level 2 NGB Technical qualification
  • Child Protection, First Aid and Equity qualified
  • Insurance
  • Enhanced CRB (if required)

For more information on our coaching services please contact the Project Manager Darren Eales on 01472 267404 or email darreneales@btconnect.com

 

S2S maintain high standards

of recruitment to protect

both candidates and employers.