Chamber and committees

This information isnot held centrally.

The background tothe allocation of this additional £40 million Schools Fund capital grant wasset out in a letter to local authorities of 10 July 2007. A copy is available in the Scottish ParliamentInformation Centre (Bib. number 43795). The grant is for expenditure at anystage of the current financial year which ends on 31 March 2008.

The ScottishHouse Condition Survey estimates that in the period from October 2003 toSeptember 2005 6,000 households with children aged five or under have nocentral heating. This corresponds to 2% of households with children aged fiveor under.

The ScottishHouse Condition Survey can only provide an overall national estimate of thenumber of households with children aged five or under which have no centralheating. The sample size is too small to allow a breakdown of this number bytenure.

A response to yourletter was issued on 20 November 2007.

Our view is that provisionalinclusion in the Disqualified from Working with Children List (DWCL) is necessarywhere the criteria for provisional listing are met.

Once a referral isreceived from an organisation such as the individual’s former employer, the individualwill be provisionally listed if the criteria set out in the Protection of Children(Scotland) Act (the 2003 act) are met. The criteriaare that the reference is not vexatious or frivolous and that it may be appropriatefor the individual to be included in the list. It is neither feasible nor reasonableto reach a major decision about listing the individual on receipt of a referral,without a provisional listing stage.

For a number of reasonsprovisional listing in the Disqualified from Working with Children List is a necessarypart of the referral process:

(i) It alerts anycurrent and prospective employers about initial concerns relating to harm or riskof harm to a child;

(ii) It allows forall relevant information to be gathered from interested parties such as the police,regulatory bodies and local authorities. Equally, it allows the individual to providewritten observations on the referral and any clarifications sought from the referringorganisation before provisional listing and for the individual and referring organisationto consider all of each other’s observations, and

(iii) Some individualsare fully listed by the panel and are therefore considered unsuitable to work withchildren. Without the provisional listing stage, the panel might not have had sufficientinformation on which to base a decision and thus prevent the individuals from workingwith children. Some individuals are not fully listed by the panel and the casesare dismissed. The provisional listing stage is instrumental in helping the panelreach this decision.

To help protect childrenduring this phase, every effort is made to keep the provisional listing period toa minimum.

A six month limiton an individual’s provisional listing and extensions to this period where necessaryis we believe the right approach. The Scottish Parliament accepted the same periodfor an individual to be “considered for listing” under the Protection of VulnerableGroups (Scotland) Act 2007 which will repeal the 2003 act.

On 12 November 2007 there were 11 former employees of Kerelaw school andsecure unit provisionally listed in the Disqualified from Working with ChildrenList (DWCL).

Two individuals were provisionally listed towards theend of 2005, five in 2006 and four during 2007.

Provisional listing is usually for no more than six months.However, the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 allowsfor extending the six month period in certain circumstances. These includeon-going legal or disciplinary proceedings in relation to the referred incident.The proceedings usually relate to Employment Tribunals; investigations by regulatorybodies such as the General Teaching Council for Scotland and Scottish Social ServicesCouncil; or criminal proceedings.

There are on-going proceedings in relation to 10 of the11 Kerelaw workers provisionally listed in the DWCL. In the interests of fairnessto the individuals, a determination panel decision will be deferred to allow thelegal or disciplinary proceedings to be finally concluded.

The referral for theeleventh individual is at the information gathering phase of the DWCL process, includinginviting observations from the referred individual. The determination panel willconsider the case once all information is available.

On 12 November 2007,there were 30 individuals provisionally listed on the Disqualified from Workingwith Children List (DWCL). This includes three individuals who are each provisionallylisted for two different incidents thus making 33 provisional listings. In thesecases the determination panel would normally consider together the referrals forthe incidents. The following table shows the periods of provisional listing.

Length of Time Provisionally Included	Number of Provisional Listings
1 month or less	3
Between 2 and 4 months	8
Between 5 and 6 months	6
More than 6 months and less than 1 year	3
1 year or more	13
Total Provisional Listings	33

 

Provisional listingis usually for no more than six months. There are on-going legal or disciplinaryproceedings in relation to those sixteen individuals currently provisionally listedfor over six months. The Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 allows for a period of six months to start from the date on whichthese legal or disciplinary proceedings are finally determined. Whilst these otherproceedings are on-going the individual is still provisionally listed. In the interestsof fairness to the individual, the determination panel usually awaits the outcomeof the legal or disciplinary proceedings before making a decision on whether ornot to list.

We do not have plansto review provisional listing in the Disqualified from Working with Children List(DWCL).

Individuals can workin child care positions during provisional listing although we know of very fewwho are working as such. Provisional listing flags up to employers a potential concern.There are a range of options available to employers to manage the situation of anindividual working whilst provisionally listed appropriately and safely. We willbe supplementing our existing guidance on the Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003 by issuing further guidance on options formanagement of the situation. However, the employer is best placed to know the particularcircumstances of the employment and the individual and to decide on action suchas suspension, enhanced supervision, discontinuing any one-to-one contact and soon.

We are committed toensuring that the implementation of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland)Act 2007 is carefully managed and that all sectors and users are supported throughthe transition from the existing multiple disclosure regime to the new streamlinedvetting and barring system. Resources will be made available for this purpose includingfor training and support to organisations that will use the scheme.

Implementation of the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007 willestablish a new vetting and barring scheme which will reduce bureaucracy aroundthe disclosure process for individuals working with children and/or protected adults.Under the current system, individuals have to provide all the requisite personalinformation every time they make an application for enhanced disclosure. In future,such individuals will become members of the vetting and barring scheme so that subsequentapplications for disclosure will be much more straightforward. There will also beno need for employers to repeatedly request disclosures for the same staff as theywill be informed of any additional vetting information that brings into questionthe individual’s continued suitability to work with vulnerable groups.