PLEASE NOTE: New Standards Published

April 2011: The Standards no longer apply, Tri.x have published a web enabled version of the new Children’s Homes and Fostering Standards, please follow this link:

www.minimumstandards.org

6. Staffing	Size:
Vetting of Staff and Visitors

	OUTCOME There is careful selection and vetting of all staff and volunteers working with children in the home and there is monitoring of visitors to prevent children being exposed to potential abusers.
	STANDARD 27
27.1	There is a written record of the recruitment process which is followed in respect of all staff (including ancillary staff and those on a contractual/sessional basis) and volunteers who work with children in the home, including evidence that all requirements of Schedule 2 of the SI 2001 No. 3967 have been met in every case.
27.2	The registered person’s system for recruiting staff (including ancillary staff and those on a contractual/sessional basis) and volunteers who work with children in the home includes an effective system to decide on appointment, or refusal of appointment, of staff or others likely to have regular contact with children at the home, in the light of any criminal convictions or other concerns about suitability that are declared or discovered through the recruitment process.
27.3	The registered person ensures that any staff provided through an agency who work with the children in the home have successfully passed the checks that are required in the Children’s Homes Regulations 2001 within the previous 12 months. There must be evidence of this, which is placed on their file. The check will be at enhanced level for staff and volunteers involved in regularly caring for, supervising, training or being in sole charge of children, and at the ‘standard’ level for all others working as paid staff or volunteers on the premises of the home or school.
27.4	The registered person has taken reasonably practicable steps to ensure that where children are driven in taxis arranged by the home, they are either accompanied by staff or other arrangements have been made to ensure that their welfare is safeguarded on the journey.
27.5	Staff members and others subject to the above checks do not normally start work at the home until all the checks required in the Children’s Homes Regulations 2001 are completed. Exceptionally, a member of staff may be allowed to do so while the outcome of some checks are awaited, but, once the Criminal Records Bureau is operational, in every case the appropriate check via the Criminal Records Bureau must have been completed before the person starts work. In such circumstances, the registered person must ensure that:
	the individual is directly supervised at all times at a level that prevents them having unsupervised contact with children in the home such circumstances are exceptional, the registered person has taken all reasonable steps to complete the recruitment process and to ‘chase’ outstanding information, and the registered person has taken all reasonable steps to avoid such circumstances occurring.
	Continued employment, in such circumstances, is subject to satisfactory outcomes from the checks.
27.6	The registered person provides information about the purpose of the home, consistent with its Statement of Purpose, to all applicants for all posts in the home.
27.7	Wherever practicable, short-listed applicants for appointment to any post in the home are invited for a visit to the home and to meet staff and children (subject to the children’s agreement) prior to the decision on appointment being made, and observations sought from staff and children, which are taken into account in the appointment decision. In such circumstances, candidates are not given unsupervised access to children.
27.8	Any employment references provided by the registered person on any existing or past staff member for work with children clearly state where there are any concerns regarding the suitability of the person to work with children and, if so, explain what those are.
27.9	Adults living in households on the premises of the home who are not members of staff of the home are checked through the Criminal Records Bureau at the ‘standard’ level of checking.
27.10	Any visitor to the home who has not been satisfactorily checked, either through the police or, once the Bureau is operational, through the Criminal Records Bureau, is not allowed unsupervised access to the home.
27.11	There is a clear policy, with procedures, implemented in practice, for monitoring such people. There is a system in place to record all visits made to the home. Staff take responsibility for the monitoring and management of such visitors, in consultation with children, in the interests of the safety and welfare of all resident children. Children are given clear written and verbal guidance on the arrangements for receiving their own visitors to the home. Visiting parents and relatives are not given unsupervised access to other children in the home. [Regulations 16, 26, 27]