The Sport and Recreation Alliance has been part of a coalition of organisations, including NSPCC, Action for Children, Barnardos, Children’s Society, Fairplay for Children, the National Childminding Association, The FA and the Scouts, that have been working together to influence the Government’s review of the Vetting and Barring Scheme. 

We wrote to the Home Secretary asking that any revised vetting and barring arrangements should:

• Be based on risk
• Involve continuous monitoring of intelligence and convictions
• Introduce minimal burdens on employees and volunteers, and the organisations that they work with, and
• Be effectively communicated.

Lynne Featherstone MP (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities and Criminal Information) responded to the letter, offering to meet the Chief Executives of the organisations involved in the coalition. The meeting happened on 1 March 2011 and the Protection of Freedoms Bill was discussed.
 
The issues of clarification and/or concern for sport that we identified were:

• "Regulated Activity" will no longer cover 16/17 year olds. This has been identified as an area of concern and an area where clarity is needed if eligibility remains should a sport wish to conduct checks - this issue has since been resolved
• "Regulated Activity" will no longer include any supervised teaching training or instruction. More clarity is needed on what is "supervised" in a sporting context
• Only the applicant will receive the CRB disclosure. Clarity is needed on how the NGB will receive CRB information securely
• There will be a charge for updating information. Clarity is needed on how this will work for volunteers and whether volunteers will be able to get continuously updated and portable checks for free.

As the Bill goes through Parliament, the Alliance has continued to engage with the Government to voice the concerns of the sport and recreation sector in regards to the proposed changes to safeguarding legislation.  A full briefing of the Bill can be found here.

Our submission to the Public Bill Committee (which closely scrutinized the proposals and the potential impact on sport) was well received and discussed at length by participating MPs.  The Alliance followed this up by meeting with MPs and officials to further explain the concerns of the sector.  The Bill is due to go to its Third Reading and Report Stage in the Autumn and will then receive further scrutiny in the House of Lords. 

The Sport and Recreation Alliance will lobby for further changes which include:

• The scope of the scheme and the people who will/won’t be captured by the legal requirement
• The disclosure of information to NGBs and clubs
• The need for the new scheme to remain completely free for volunteers.

The Alliance briefing note which was sent to MPs for the Third Reading and Report Stage can be viewed here.

The Alliance briefing note which has been used to demonstrate concerns to officials can be viewed here.

Further to this, a number of Alliance members have responded to a survey launched by the All Party Parliamentary Group for Child Protection, which inquired into the implementation of the Government’s reforms. The report sets out a number of recommendations, which can be read here.

The Bill is now progressing through the House of Lords.  The Alliance briefing note that has been sent to Peers for the committee stages in the House of Lords can be read here.

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