Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the Minister for that full reply. As she was going through it, I was a little uncertain about daycare centre staff. At one time I thought she was saying they would not be covered and at another time I thought she was saying they would. Maybe that is my misunderstanding. I thoroughly agree that a cleaner in a day centre should not be covered by the bar, because in most instances it is likely that the cleaning will take place when the day centre is not in operation; so there would be minimum contact between the day centre users and the cleaner. However, one of the most difficult situations that I faced when I was a director of social services—and I hope that noble Lords will excuse a personal example—was when a member of staff ““groomed”” a user of the day centre who had severe learning disabilities and, over a period, arranged to meet that young woman outside the day centre and took advantage of her in a way that I thought was intolerable. I am in no doubt, and I hope that further consideration might be given to this, that the relationship between day centre staff and users can become very close. For the most part, that closeness is positive, encouraging, instils confidence in the users, helps people develop their potential—however limited that may be—and is a source of great reassurance in their lives. But we need to recognise that such people are vulnerable and they can be with a day centre worker for hours, sometimes alone with them, if they are pursuing certain activities. Most day centre workers that I have encountered are wholly honourable, but I hope that the Bill would extend to people who will abuse their position because they can cause such terrible suffering to people who already have enough to cope with in life.