Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [HL]

We are entirely at one with the noble Baroness in wishing to provide the maximum protection to all children and vulnerable adults, including protection from those who work with them in the home. The new system will improve that protection. For example, when considering someone for relevant work, for the first time parents and other domestic employers will be able directly to check an individual’s barred status where the individual has applied to the scheme to be monitored. Where an individual has not applied to the scheme, employers can request that he or she does so. They will also be able to check an individual’s barred status online for free. That option is not available at the moment to parents or other domestic employers. It will significantly enhance the protection offered in those settings. We will be encouraging domestic employers to check the guidance, which sets out the advantages and ease of checking, and how they can go about doing so. We wish to make access to the online service as user-friendly as possible for parents when it comes to getting the necessary passwords and logging on to the system. We will also implement, through websites, press articles and key organisations, an extensive and ongoing communications campaign to encourage checks. Following the debate on the Childcare Bill, to which we look forward to returning tomorrow afternoon, we are giving further consideration to the requirements on childminders with respect to the vetting and barring scheme. However, we believe that there is a balance to be struck here, so as not to make the life of private individuals excessively difficult. We have therefore not placed a statutory retirement on parents and domestic employers to check those they employ to work closely with children or vulnerable adults. Parents may employ a neighbour to babysit their child whom they know and trust, for example. We should not make it difficult for parents to get support for the difficult job of parenting or for them to get together to arrange activities for their children. Similarly, the direct payments system aims to give individuals choice about how to lead their lives. As we said earlier, we do not want to restrict that choice by placing undue requirements on them. So while I entirely share the concerns raised by the noble Baroness and we believe that the arrangements in the Bill will considerably strengthen the capacity of parents and those who employ in the home to check the status of the people they employ, we do not wish to bring domestic arrangements into the statutory obligations under the Bill.