Child Protection Law
by Ann Mayou, ODG Children’s Officer

The Government is tightening and rationalising procedures to safeguard children and vulnerable adults. It has created a new body, the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), which will hold a register of individuals deemed suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults and bar those considered unsuitable from the register.

What towers need to do

• Between now and November 2010, new Guild Officers, tower captains and tutors should be Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checked in the usual way. Those whose current CRB checks come up for renewal after five years should have a new check. Parishes are being sent reminders from the Diocese about when these are due.
• From July 2010 the ISA will begin to accept applications for registration for those intending to work with children. There will be a transitional period of five years during which those who already have CRB checks will be registered, starting with those with the oldest checks.
• From November 2010 (not October 2009 as we were previously informed) it will be illegal to employ anyone (whether paid or a volunteer) to work with children unless they are registered with the ISA, or are awaiting registration as existing holders of CRB clearances are phased in. Those who will need to be registered for bell ringing purposes will be Guild Officers, tower captains and those who teach children to ring. Other ringers attending practices, training sessions etc and helpers are not required to register.

Application for registration with the ISA will be made through the CRB. The ISA will work with the CRB to compile and hold lists of individuals who are barred from work with children and will only register people who do not appear on these lists. The registration status of individuals will be kept constantly up-to-date as the CRB will feed any new information to the ISA which will then decide if registration can be maintained or will be withdrawn. Employers (or organisers of voluntary organisations) will be able to check the registration status of anyone intending to work with children quickly, on-line, and with no charge, by using a unique reference number that must be supplied by the applicant. ISA registration only shows that an individual may work with children. A CRB Disclosure should be requested if full information of an individual’s record is needed. This will continue to be needed for Guild Officers, tower captains and tutors as at present. There is no charge for CRB Disclosures or registration with the ISA for volunteers, but the Diocese will continue to make a small handling charge for processing these applications.

Procedure for allowing children to be photographed

Following a query that arose from a branch of the Guild, here is a reminder of procedures that should be followed if photographs, videos, or other images are made of children during bell ringing activities. Procedures are also clearly set out in the Diocese of Oxford’s guidelines Protecting Children in the Diocese of Oxford, section 18.

• Before any image is made of a child parental consent (and of course the consent of the child) must be sought. This need not be in writing if the image is not to be published, but written consent must be obtained if the image is to appear for example, in any newspaper, guild or branch publication, put on a website or posted up. Permission for images to be made can be included in the consent form for an activity.
• The person making the image should be CRB cleared.
• Where possible the image should be of groups rather than individuals, and should be of an activity.
• Images of children should never be accompanied by their full names (first names only should be used) and should never give addresses.

Ann Mayou wishes to draw your attention to the article in the May 1st issue of The Ringing World (p457) by Chris Mew. Chris sets out in some detail the new arrangements for safeguarding children and the particular implications for bell ringers. His article contains a useful chart of the responsibilities for activities and registrations showing who needs an ISA registration, who should supervise, who should check an existing registration and who should initiate a new registration. Please note that although this chart does not specifically mention tower captains and Guild officers as needing registration it is currently diocesan policy that they should be CRB checked and eventually registered. Most tower captains and Guild officers are likely to be involved in teaching and so would be checked/registered anyway.