Advice needed please - Interview with police on Tuesday

Queen-Bee_2

Hello SE

I'd just like to add my congratulations to everyone else's. Two smiley faces - I take this to mean you're more than happy with the settlement. Good.

As for Anihilator? Well, disappointed as he might be, this poster is in his own tiny minority - look at all the messages wishing you well!!

HellsGranny

Great News!

I got out of nursing and caring several years back, because I could see things like this coming.

Ok, I was within spitting distance of retiring, so it wasn't too much of a wrench. I still see some of my old clients, and we always chat, or sometimes go for coffee. I was lucky never to have allegations levelled at me.

I'm really glad you have reached a settlement and can now put this behind you.

Cheers, HG

sexyeyes83

Hi,

I know its been some time know and like me you probably thought everything was done and dusted, however today I received a letter from the Independant Safeguarding Authority stating -

I am writing to tell you that the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has received a report from **company**. Within the report it states that you were dismissed from your position within thier organisation after allegations of theft from service users were made against you.

The ISA is required by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (SVGA) to establish and maintain the Childrens Barred Lists and the Adukts Barred List. Schedule 3 to the SVGA gives the ISA powers to include persons on those lists in certain circumstances. A person will be bared from working with children under 18 if included by the ISA on the Childrens Barred List and barred from working with vulnerable adults (as defined in Section 59 of the SVGA) if included by the ISA on the Adults Barred List.

In view of the information the ISA has received about you it has decided to consider whether or not to include you in one or both of the lists.

We are making further enquires about the circumstances of your dismissal. If, after making out enquiries, we are minded to bar you from working with children and/or vulnerable adults, we will write to you again and tell you this and explain what you must do.
If we decide that it is not appropiate to bar you on either or both the lists we will tell you in writing.

Needless to say, I was gobsmacked when I read it. I thought this entire matter had been deakt with.

No charges brought by the police. All cases dropped due to lack of evidence and the company pulled out of going to the tribunal to settle.

Now I run the risk of being barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.

Looking for any tips, help and advice if possible.

cagney_2010

sexyeyes83 wrote: »

Hi, Im currently a care worker and have been employed with my company for 17 months. When I went to the interview I said that I could only work school hours and maybe the odd evening/weekend when my partner was at home (he works shift work). The company had no problems at all with this.

Around about one month ago the manager phoned me up and said that I had to work one evening and one day each week at the weekend along with my normal school hours. These would be set days which wouldnt be changed. I said that it wouldnt be possible to do this as my partner works shift work and I cant guarantee I would be able to work them. The manger wasnt too impressed and said they would tell head office that I was "refusing". I asked a few other carers in the same situation, however none of them had been asked to do the same!

Worksheets for the current weeks work are sent out in the post each week and normally arrive on a Friday. As I hadnt received them today I text the out of hours phone asking what my shifts were for Monday and was told im not marked down to work. When I asked about Tuesday I was again told im not marked down to work. I then contacted the manager who said a letter had been posted to me saying that I must attend a meeting on Tuesday, however they couldnt tell me what it was about. I asked if I would be working the rest of the week after the meeting as I would need to arrange/alter childcare and she said "I dont know". I asked if she could get head office to give me a call.

10 minutes later the lady from head office called and said the meetings been arranged for Tuesday with herself, another manager from head office and the local manager would be present. I was asked to make sure my time sheets are upto date and to bring them along with me. She said she couldnt tell me what it was about and it would be discussed on Tuesday. She also couldnt tell me if I would be working the rest of the week after the meeting.

I have no idea what this is about. I did say im thinking the worst here and waiting three days to find out what is going on isnt really acceptable, no comment was made.

I went into the office last Tuesday to hand in my timesheets and the lady from head office was there. She was pleasant and chatted to me, however she said she sent the letter out on Thursday. At no point when I was in the office did she say she needed to talk to me. (Ive been on annual leave since)

Ive never received any warnings either verbal or written. I work Mon - Fri 9.15 until 1400hrs, give or take depending on the work available.

Any help and advice is really appreciated. Im so worried and having to wait 3 days to find out whats going on isnt helping!

What's this got to do with the Police ?

sexyeyes83

cagney_2010 wrote: »

What's this got to do with the Police ?

Its a very long store (25 pages long) but thats all been dealt with now.

Its just regarding my last post im looking for some advice.

blue_monkey_2

Have you spoken to the lawyer SE?

Snuggles

sexyeyes83 wrote: »

Hi,

I know its been some time know and like me you probably thought everything was done and dusted, however today I received a letter from the Independant Safeguarding Authority stating -


Needless to say, I was gobsmacked when I read it. I thought this entire matter had been deakt with.

No charges brought by the police. All cases dropped due to lack of evidence and the company pulled out of going to the tribunal to settle.

Now I run the risk of being barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.

Looking for any tips, help and advice if possible.

Hi SE,

Ok, firstly, don't panic. It is routine that anyone who is dismissed from working with vulnerable adults for anything that could potentially be a safeguarding issue is referred to the ISA (usually by their employer). Only a very small percentage of people who are referred are actually barred.

And don't believe all the scare stories about the ISA barring people based on rumour and inuendo. Just because there have been allegations made against you does not mean you will be barred.

In general terms this is what happens. Further information about the allegations will probably be requested from the former employer (and possibly the police). All of the information will be taken into account, firstly to determine whether or not the allegation can be proven on the balance of probabilities (in order for this to happen, there has to be credible evidence, not just rumour or accusation). If the allegation can be proven, it still doesn't mean a barring decision would be made - the ISA would consider all the information it holds in order to assess future risk, taking into account previous employment history etc.

At that point, they will either write to you to tell you they are taking no action (ie they are not barring you), and that would be the end of it. Or they will write to tell you that they are "minded" to bar you. At this point, they would send you all the information they hold on which they had based the decision, and you would have eight weeks to submit any information you wished to demonstrate why you should not be barred. This could be your own account of events, character references etc, anything you felt pertinent. The ISA would look at this information and then make it's final decision.

It may be some time before you hear from the ISA again, as they will be gathering information etc. You have two options at the moment. 1) Wait and see what they decide. You are not barred from working with vulnerable groups during this period. If they write to tell you they are minded to bar you, as above, you would have eight weeks to respond. 2) Write to them now, giving your account of events. If you wished, you could submit a subject access request now to see what information they hold (although this would be sent to you anyway in due course if they were minded to bar you).

I have not been able to read through the entire thread, but can you confirm if you were dismissed on the basis of the theft allegations, or was there another issue? I have seen mention of you not being able to work new hours which were offered?

If the employer ultimately dismissed you because you couldn't work particular hours, then you should write to the ISA and tell them this straight away, along with the information about the employment tribunal. If you have some documentary evidence which shows that the employer settled the case, send the ISA a copy.

Personally I would recommend contacting the ISA now rather than waiting, as your input might hurry things along. For example, they may currently not know anything about your former employer settling the ET, and depending on the circumstances (like I said, I haven't read the entire thread) this could make a big difference. If you can't wait, call your caseworker on Monday and explain to them over the phone. They may tell you there is no point putting anything in writing at this stage, but you can do it anyway - and it will be taken into account.

Just to say I am posting this only to give information to the OP and have no intention of getting into any debate with anyone about the rights and wrongs of the vetting and barring scheme.

OP, check out the ISA's website for more information about their role, and this in particular will give you valuable information about how decisions are made:

http://www.isa-gov.org.uk/pdf/GuidanceNotesforBarringDecisionMakingProcessweb.pdf

Savvy_Sue

Snuggles wrote: »

Ok, firstly, don't panic. It is routine that anyone who is dismissed from working with vulnerable adults for anything that could potentially be a safeguarding issue is referred to the ISA (usually by their employer).

Even if referred by someone else as well, employers now have a duty to refer for anything which could potentially be a safeguarding issue, don't they? so I imagine that's what they'd argue they'd done. "We had to, the allegations were made, never mind if no-one had any evidence and it all seemed a bit unlikely that she'd steal a bra which wasn't the right size for her which could have been taken by any of half a dozen other people from an insecure table in a communal hallway."

Very sound advice in the rest of your post, IMO.

Snuggles

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Even if referred by someone else as well, employers now have a duty to refer for anything which could potentially be a safeguarding issue, don't they? so I imagine that's what they'd argue they'd done. "We had to, the allegations were made, never mind if no-one had any evidence and it all seemed a bit unlikely that she'd steal a bra which wasn't the right size for her which could have been taken by any of half a dozen other people from an insecure table in a communal hallway."

Very sound advice in the rest of your post, IMO.

Yes absolutely, employers have a duty to refer for potential safeguarding issues. I said it's usually the employer, as many other agencies can also make referrals, eg the police, the Care Quality Commision, the General Teaching Council, Social Services etc etc, and although employers have a legal duty to refer, less scrupulous employers don't always obey the law!

Snuggles

wrangler5 wrote: »

Hate to say 'i told you so' but Anihalator did try to point out that this could happen if you just took a payout then left the charges on file.

From what I can gather, it would have made no difference whether it went to ET or not. Correct me if I'm wrong (I've tried to quickly read through the thread) but I think the OP went to ET on the basis that she was offered an office job on hours which the employer knew she couldn't work? This is effectively nothing to do with the theft allegations. Even if she had won the ET, the fact would remain that allegations were made, and as a result of this, the employer intended to remove SE from working with vulnerable groups. This would still have been referred to the ISA irrespective of the ET outcome.