In October this year, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act comes into force – requiring all adults who work or volunteer with children to register on a vetting database. Yet with only 2 months to go, the rules on who – and who will not – be on the vetting database have not yet been written. These rules will be spelt out in a government Guidance document, to be published soon.
The Manifesto Club’s Campaign Against Vetting has obtained a draft copy of this guidance, which it reports in a briefing document, ‘Regulating Trust – Who Will be on the Vetting Database?’, published today.
Regulating Trust shows how the rules for the vetting database are convoluted and irrational, and would be difficult for a lawyer to understand. Anomalies include:
- A teacher in an FE college teaching 16 and 17 year olds would be on the database, but an adult coach of a mixed-age sports team that included 16/17-year olds would not.
- A self-employed tennis coach would not have to be checked, but if he took on a volunteer the volunteer would have to be checked.
- 15-year-olds will have to register in time for their 16th birthday ‘to avoid committing an offence’.
Josie Appleton, head of the club’s Campaign Against Vetting, and author of the report, said:
‘This database scheme reaches surreal levels of irrationality, in its effort to hyperregulate every interaction between adults and children. It is simply not possible for the state to manage and control every “relationship of trust” between the generations.’
Children's author Anne Fine, OBE, FRSL said:
"If there is a more shameful, idiotic, irrational or dispiriting document kicking around in government, I'd be astonished. This futile business has already turned Britain into an international laughing stock. It was hard to imagine proposals even more bereft of common sense than those already floated. But here they are."
Appleton says that this database will do nothing to safeguard children from child abuse:
‘Like any other criminal offence, child abuse needs targeted policies, not constant mass surveillance. The monitoring process sounds like a state-run Facebook or Twitter, with employers “subscribing” to individuals’ “monitoring status”. Because it suspects everyone, this database actually trivialises child abuse and makes it harder to detect.’
Notes to editors:
1. ‘Regulating Trust – Who Will be on the Vetting Database?’ is published at: http://www.manifestoclub.com/regulatingtrust
2. The Manifesto Club has been campaigning against the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act since October 2006, when we launched a petition signed by individuals including Fay Weldon, Johnny Ball and Alan Silitoe, and hundreds of volunteers, parents and concerned adults. See: http://www.manifestoclub.com/hubs/vetting
Reports: We have also published a series of reports, documenting the expansion of vetting and its damaging effect on social life, including:
* The Case Against Vetting (October 2006) provides an overview of the dramatic expansion of vetting, and shows how this feeds a child protection bureaucracy, while undermining everyday relationships between adults and children.
* How the Child Protection Industry Stole Christmas (December 2006) shows how overregulation is affecting seasonal celebrations
* Hobby Clubs (April 2007) documents how some mixed-age clubs are banning children.
* Briefing Document (April 2008) shows how the government's new vetting laws will be late, over-budget and over-stretched.
3. Details on children's author Anne Fine available at her website: http://www.annefine.co.uk/ 3. For more information, contact James Panton on info@manifestoclub.com and 0779 2795462; or Josie Appleton on Josie.Appleton@manifestoclub.com and 0779 1032740
Ends.
