Question reference: S6W-25768
- Asked by: Martin Whitfield, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 26 February 2024
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Current status: Answered by Natalie Don on 13 March 2024
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how it will collaborate with relevant agencies and organisations to ensure that disclosure processes are effective in safeguarding children and young people.
Answer
I have asked Gerard Hart, Chief Executive of Disclosure Scotland to respond. His response is as follows:
Disclosure Scotland run regular training courses aimed at organisations who work with children and young people and cover a range of topics regarding safeguarding and working with children and young people.
We also target newly registered organisations and signatories to ensure that they have a fuller understanding of safeguarding processes when they start to use disclosure products including the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme.
Since 2019, Disclosure Scotland have held 198 events to support organisations in understanding their legal duties in relation to PVG referrals about people who have displayed harmful behaviour towards children and young people. These have been attended by 1978 delegates from 979 different organisations.
We have also run 129 events entitled “Helping Employers Recruit Fairly” which aims to broaden the understanding of information disclosed by Disclosure Scotland, how to implement better risk assessment processes and make informed recruitment decisions. These have been attended by 1402 delegates from 390 different organisations.
All of Disclosure Scotland’s training products provide delegates with a range of materials to support their role in working with children and young people including links to downloadable guidance that is regularly reviewed and updated to ensure organisations have access to the most up to date information.