Social services CRB/vetting

StrangelyBrown

saidan wrote: »

whether you gave permission or not - social services have the authority to check out the adults that your niece is staying with - surely you must see that as a good thing?

Yes of course it's a good thing - up to a point. There's an appropriate amount of personal info needed to make that decision and then there's an excessive amount which I'd object to, given the choice.
A simple check to see if I'm known to SS is fine. A full disclosure of driving misdemeanours or financial details, for example, would be excessively intrusive.

It's more the "authority to check out the adults" that I was querying in terms of exactly what they can check without informing me. And in addition to what they are requesting - who exactly are they disclosing it to?

StrangelyBrown

PaulyB71 wrote: »

Probably more likely to be a List 99 check - very common in Local Authorities.

What's List 99 exactly? Sounds very Area 51!!

Or perhaps it's just a database of people who like flakes in their ice cream...

BugglyB

StrangelyBrown wrote: »

What's List 99 exactly? Sounds very Area 51!!

Or perhaps it's just a database of people who like flakes in their ice cream...

Its now known as the Vetting and Barring Scheme.

newcook

it sounds to me that SS just put your name in the database to see if anything came up.

if your sister is already known to SS they just want to make sure that the daughter is in safe hands. you can almost hear the conversation:

SS: 'we were hoping to come and visit you and dd on X date'
sister: 'oh, you cant - she is going to the seaside with my sister and Strangelybrown'

its possible that they have already done a similar check on your partner with her being a close relative - its also good for if ever anything get bad and the little girl needs somewhere to stay for a few nights as SS would rather place a child with known and trusted family member than a foster family.

StrangelyBrown

BugglyB wrote: »

Its now known as the Vetting and Barring Scheme.

Ah, the same one that children's authors were up in arms about because they'd have to be 'checked' before visiting schools?

I thought that was on hold or something. Plus, didn't think it applied to one-off in-family arrangements?

Getting a bit more confused now about what checks can and can't be done without my knowledge.

BugglyB

No I think it was proposed changes to the scheme that were put on hold.

As far as I know, social services can do a check to see if you have been barred from working with vulnerable adults or children. As far as I know, they need your permission to do a full CRB check.

saidan

StrangelyBrown wrote: »

Yes of course it's a good thing - up to a point. There's an appropriate amount of personal info needed to make that decision and then there's an excessive amount which I'd object to, given the choice.
A simple check to see if I'm known to SS is fine. A full disclosure of driving misdemeanours or financial details, for example, would be excessively intrusive.

It's more the "authority to check out the adults" that I was querying in terms of exactly what they can check without informing me. And in addition to what they are requesting - who exactly are they disclosing it to?

full disclosure of driving or financial details would need your permission - and actually are not things that SS would want to know.

the check through the computer will simply show your name if it is in the system and why it is there
examples:
in 2004 strangelybrown was reported to SS for domestic violence with a child in the home. further action taken xyz
in 2007 strangelybrown requested a child in need assessment from SS for their disabled child xbrown. Assesment carried out and outcome was xyz

they will simply put it in your nieces file:
will state something like:
niece is away for the weekend with aunt and strangelybrown - in house check carried out and no concerns or previous contact with ss noted.

The check is obviously for SS to protect children - the writing it down is to protect themselves if something happens to a child they are monitoring - that they had tried to protect the child by doing some basic checks.....

(this is why social worker's are damned if they do, damned it they don't!)

StrangelyBrown

Thanks saidan, that makes sense. Is your source personal experience or do you actually work in that field?

The only other thing I'd be concerned about is how confidentially they'd treat the data they obtained.

In my case they haven't actually got anything to disclose anyway, but that in itself is personal (i.e. whether or not I'm known to SS)
But if they had found that I'd got, say, a history of violence or whatever, would they then go back to the parents and tell them what they found out?
Or just say "we can't let your daughter go away but I can't tell you why"?

saidan

if you did come up in the checks they should discuss it with you first - so come to you and say we did a check for niece but it seems you have come up on our system - can we discuss why.....lots of things would be discussed and resolved without a problem.

Yes - they would not tell the parent the reason - simply say niece cannot be around this person.

I hae professional dealings in this field so know most of the ins/outs with child protection....but am not a SW.

rachbc

elvis86 wrote: »

I'm surprised to hear that. I needed one when I started my current job and I can't say as I recall providing 5 items of ID (as someone else said, I'm not sure that I could either!).

I'm just doing mine - its 5 if you don't have passport or driving license, 3 if you do!