Who needs to register with the vetting and barring scheme

This section gives information on who does and who does not need to register with the vetting and barring scheme. It also gives details on the types of activities and settings covered by the scheme.

Find out if you need to register with the Vetting and Barring Scheme

You’ll need to register with the Vetting and Barring Scheme if you have frequent contact with children or vulnerable adults. This could be for paid or voluntary work. Frequent contact normally means once a week or more, although it is once a month or more for certain health or personal care services.

New staff can join from July 2010 and existing staff from April 2011. Your employer will tell you when you need to apply. You'll be breaking the law if you apply for work or get a job without being registered for the scheme or if you are on a barred list.

Activities covered by the scheme: some examples

If you frequently work or volunteer in these categories, you’ll need to register with the scheme (this is not a full list):

teaching and training (eg teachers, football coaches)
care and supervision (eg probation officers, childminders)
advice or guidance (eg careers advisors, Childline advisors)
treatment or therapy (eg doctors, therapists, St John’s Ambulance volunteers)
transportation (eg school bus drivers, ambulance drivers)

Settings covered by the scheme

If you frequently work or volunteer in these places, you’ll need to register with the scheme:

schools
childcare premises (eg nurseries, playgroups)
children’s homes
children’s hospitals
children’s detention centres
residential care homes
nursing homes

Jobs or positions covered by the scheme

People with certain roles in organisations that deal with children or vulnerable adults will need to register with the vetting and barring scheme. These positions include:

school governors
a director for social care and children in the Health & Social Care Board
Commissioner for Children and Young People for Northern Ireland
Find out if you need to register with the vetting and barring scheme

When you don’t need to register

You won’t need to join if your contact with children or vulnerable adults is:

Personal or family arrangements

The scheme doesn’t cover personal or family relationships. Taking your child and their friends to play football in the park is a personal arrangement, and isn’t covered by the scheme.

Private arrangements

If you work as a babysitter, carer or tutor, employed on a private basis, these are private arrangements and you don’t need to join. But your employer can ask if you’re ISA-registered, and may prefer that you are.

If you’re on a ‘barred list’ (a list of people considered a risk to children or vulnerable adults, run by the Independent Safeguarding Authority) you’re unable to do this type of work. It doesn’t matter how it was arranged.

Situations not covered by the scheme

You don’t need to register with the vetting and barring scheme if you:

work with 16 and 17 year olds in your workplace
work at mixed age sports and leisure facilities
work with children or vulnerable adults by chance (eg an adult brings their child to your aerobics class)
work at a college for adults
visit a friend or relative in a children’s home or residential care or nursing home
work in a shop or leisure facility where children or vulnerable adults might be customers (eg ice cream vans, fairgrounds, holiday camps)
are visiting from overseas with a group and are working or caring only for that group
are under 16
are aged 16-18 and volunteer as part of your school work (you may have to register if you work with vulnerable groups for your vocational studies)

If you work with under 16 year olds in your workplace then you won’t have to register by law, but your employer may ask you to do so. Your employer will decide which of its employees should register for their work with under 16s in the workplace.

This is not a full list, but information will be provided to help you decide if you need to be registered. Remember, you can register if you think you might need to – you do not need to wait until you are actually doing the work.

Guidance if you're not sure whether you need to register

It’s everyone’s responsibility

If you frequently work or volunteer with children or vulnerable adults, you must register with the vetting and barring scheme. Registration will be phased in and your employer will tell you when you need to apply.

You’ll be breaking the law if you apply for work or get a job and you’re on a barred list. You’ll also break the law if you start a job without your ISA-registration

If you’re an employer, you must check that your new staff and volunteers have registered with the scheme. You mustn’t knowingly employ anyone barred from working with children or vulnerable adults, even as a one-off. When the scheme comes into force later this year, you’ll be breaking the law if you don’t follow these rules. You’ll be able to check your staff’s ISA-registration status by checking their details online from July 2010.

The law says you must give certain information about someone you are in charge of to the Independent Safeguarding Authority if you:

think they’ve harmed children or vulnerable adults either by something they’ve done, or something they’ve not done
removed them from their job because of how they behaved towards children or vulnerable adults