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The impact of vetting volunteers
CHECKMATE: THE IMPACT OF VETTING ON YOUTH WORK
From Autumn 2008, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act will make it a crime for a non-CRB checked adult to work or volunteer with children. Vetting is already putting adults off working with kids; some long-time volunteers have resigned rather than be CRB checked.
Is some vetting necessary – and when is it going too far? What effect does vetting have on the relationship between youth workers and young people? Are there alternative ways for adults to work together to ensure children’s welfare?
This evening event, organised by the Manifesto Club at Spitz, is a forum for honest discussion about the role and impact of vetting - and for us to start to think of possible ways forward.
We can continue the conversation afterwards, over a glass of wine in the Spitz bar.
Speakers for the evening include:
Tony Jeffs (senior lecturer, University of Durham, community youth work unit), Viv Regan (youth worker and volunteer, WORLDwrite), and Mervyn Barrett (communications manager, Nacro).
Date: Thursday 26 July Time: 7-9pm Place: The Spitz, 109 Commercial St, Old Spitalfields Market, London E1 6BG
See a map: http://www.spitz.co.uk/location.htm
Tickets are £5. To book a ticket, go to www.manifestoclub.com/youthevent
For more information about this or other Manifesto Club events, email info@manifestoclub.com The event will be filmed by the youth education charity WORLDwrite. We hope to collect some case studies, perhaps for a future publication – and also to lead on to further discussions within the sector in the run-up to autumn 2008.
The Manifesto Club is a pro-human campaigning network, and is running an ongoing campaign against the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act. www.manifestoclub.com
I completely agree that police checks are an important part of safegaurding children and vulnerable people. But I do not agree that CRB checks should be mandatory for ALL volunteers. There are many roles where volunteers have absoloutley no contact with vulnerable clients, and police checking these people would be unecessary (not to mention illegal).
I have worked with a lot of volunteers who are ex-offenders - most of them with convictions that are completely irelevant. In my experience these people did not mind being checked and being upfront about their past, as long as it was explained to them that this was necessary in order to safeguard vulnerable clients. However I did encounter quite a few organisations who check everybody regardless of whether they will be working with vulnerable people or not, and this did annoy people. Effectively organisations are 'prying' into their past without particulalrly good (or at least without legally sanctioned) reason.
Organisations who run CRB checks when they shouldn't be, confuse the situation. As I said, most ex-offenders I've worked with are happy to be upfront about their past if they see this as necessary. However there are some people who are embaressed about their past and don't want people to know about it (for instance I have worked with quite a few women with convictions around prostitution who have been deeply uncomfortable about disclosing their past). Theoretically this shouldn't be a barrier to volunteering because if you have a criminal record you have a choice whether or not to volunteer with vulnerable people. However if organisations start checking all roles it muddies the waters and acts as a barrier.
I welcome the clarity that the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act brings, because it makes it much clearer that volunteers working with vulnerable groups should be checked. However it would be a huge shame if it lead to people blanket checking all roles.