Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

I wish to speak to Amendment No. 107. Clause 14 provides a list of activities that are exempt from the requirement to make a monitoring check and we will later debate what those specific activities should be. But the principle is the same for both points: that while the scheme will provide stringent protection for some vulnerable adults, other vulnerable people will be wide open to abuse. Other noble Lords have touched on that already. Given the need to make checks in the more protected activities, it is reasonable to suggest that those who would commit abuse would be drawn to those less-protected areas. We are very aware that the sort of people we are talking about can be extremely canny. Amendment No. 107 addresses one such area. More often than not, activities carried out under direct payment schemes occur in people’s homes, where they should feel the most protected. The amendment would remove direct payment recipients from Clause 14. It would become a mandatory requirement for those recipients to check the people who provide direct payment services to them, fulfilling roles as both employer and recipient. They would then receive the same treatment as any other vulnerable adult in other care or educational situations. The Ann Craft Trust is concerned over this issue of direct payments. It states:"““We are concerned that there may be unsuitable people who may gravitate towards providing direct payment services because the likelihood is that they will not be checked, and in doing so are creating an ideal, unsupervised opportunity to abuse vulnerable adults””." The trust goes on to state the importance of raising awareness of the vetting and barring process and the need to provide support and help in implementing the process. It is worth mentioning that the amendment goes some way, but not all the way, towards Amendment No. 73 tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, on direct payments. However, rather than requiring checks on all those who receive direct payment whose jobs lead them to minimal contact with adults, my amendment would address the core group of those who work for individuals under a direct payment scheme providing services with regular contact. It does not seem right that those receiving care in their own homes should be more at risk than those in protected institutions. So I hope that the Minister will think carefully and most positively about my Amendment No. 107.