The Independent Safegaurding (ISA) authority has been established and will operate from Darlington. Yet another quango that it is reported will be staffed by 250. Well, at least it is not in London. The ISA has been established as a result of the Bichard Inquiry (2004) which looked into the circumstances concerning Ian Huntly employed as a school caretaker in Soham and where he murdered Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman in 2002.

They have taken over the running of the List 99 (education) which lists teachers barred from practice, the PoVA and PoCA list which lists those unsuitable to work with vulnerable adults and children respectively. Those three lists become two lists concerning children and adults and will be managed by one service. That is a good move.

They have an advice line service – see their website. They become live in October 2009 and they will begin to register everyone concerned in work or voluntary work plus their dogs and cats) with children or vulnerable adults. Registrants have to pay for their registration. I bet teachers and others employed in the public sector will have their fees for registration paid! Unlike Wilt who will have to pay his own fee.

There is some controversy around this agency and whether it is going to be effective, indeed cost effective especially if local authorities and other public bodies pay for their staff to be registered.  Voluntary agencies such as the NSPCC (who are very wealthy) will no doubt increase their vommit inducing TV advertising Full Stop! to cover the additional cost, but smaller voluntary groups might well suffer hugely – individual volunteers are exempt (in terms of cost) as in the case of the CRB, but small and large voluntary agencies alike who employ staff are not exempt. There is also a query whether, for example in the case of RELATE, who fee pay their councellors for work done (hence neither volunteer or employee but effectively self employed) will need to foot the bill. Wilt suspects those ’self employed’ will be required to pay their own one off registration fee, cos RELATE cannot afford it.

So social care workers will in many cases not only have to register with the GSCC (£30+ every three years) and also certainly have a CRB check (£30+ per check) and register with the ISA (£60+ one off payment, as yet!) – at this rate Wilt will have to take out a new mortgage. I would not mind so much but I am not conviced that the ISA (like the GSCC) will have any impact, or little impact. Let us not forget there was already police intelligence on Ian Huntley in Soham but the police failed to disclose the details to the school, citing Data Protection legislation – utter dorks! As yet the GSCC are to discipline a registrant who has not already been disciplined/sacked by an employer or convicted of an offence, and even then (as in Lisa Arthurworrey) they sometimes make a ball-up. The nearest the GSCC got to a success was in preventing the registration of a student social worker on the grounds that he had failed to disclose his HIV status – they were fined for that by the Employment Tribunal. Oh, and several other landmark findings by the Care Standards Tribunal, showing them (the GSCC) as total fools.

On the issue of cost, it is Wilt’s opinion that each individualshould have their registration costs met out of their own pocket – otherwise it is another stealth tax on the unsuspecting tax/community charge (poll tax) payer. Well, I suppose either way it is a stealth tax but at least I do not have to pay for others to be registered on top of my own costs. Wilt is going to have a word (or several) in the shell like ear of his mate the local Cllr XXXX XXXXX to ensure that in my local authority area that its staff pay for all three registrations (CRB/ISA/GSCC) out of their pocket, and not mine. At least that will be a start and my Council Tax bill might be reduced by a few £pounds.

The issue of effectiveness of yet another costly quango remains an open question – presently Wilt is dubious – actually more than dubious but in the interests of safegaurding (a matter close to his heart) he will await and see how matters progress.

Wilt