Carers or suspeCts? - Manifesto Club

The Cost of CRB Checking Carers / 10 The Expansion of State-defined ‘Vulnerable Adults’ / 11
currently releasing estimates on the number of adult carers who would
be expected to go on the vetting database. If this figure was 2 million –
a relatively conservative estimate out of a total of 9.5 million adults on
the database – this would mean a total cost for the ISA registration of
carers of £168 million. This is another good reason for scrapping the
ISA scheme.
Many of these ‘vulnerable adult’ CRB checks are for people who work
in public bodies – doctors, nurses, social workers – and so the public
body generally covers the cost of the check. This is therefore a substantial
expenditure for public services, at a time of widespread cuts.
According to the CRB’s response to a recent FOI request, the UK Home
Care Association alone submitted 17,654 CRB checks between August
2009 and August 2010, which would mean a total cost of nearly a million
pounds; the Registered Nursing Home Association submitted a similar
number of checks. 9
FOI requests also reveal that, in the year 2009-10, the CRB carried
out 610,461 checks for the care sector, and 621,469 for the medical
sector. This means a total of 1.23 million CRB checks, at the cost of
£69 million to these substantially publicly funded sectors. 10
In some cases, professionals – such as agency nurses – must pay for
the CRB check themselves. This has caused substantial conflict in some
local health boards. When NHS Central Lancashire brought in a new
policy asking staff to pay for their own CRB checks, health staff rebelled
and their unions lodged a grievance, stating: ‘These checks are compulsory
for large numbers of NHS staff and to demand that staff pay at
the same time as they are being told that they will not be receiving a pay
rise for two years is disgusting.’ 11
In other cases, voluntary organisations have had to bear the cost of checks
themselves, creating difficulties as highlighted in the following case study:
I am the secretary for a charity which is for blind and
partially sighted elderly people. Originally only the
organiser had to have a CRB check, but later this Spring
all volunteers will need to undergo the check. This
includes our rota of drivers, who collect and deliver the
members to the club, supplied by the local Rotary Club.
It is an extremely small charity and I am uncertain who
will have to pay for the 20-25 volunteers’ CRB checks.
I am absolutely certain that if the volunteers have to pay
to have the checks, i.e. pay to be a volunteer – then the
club will be forced to close. 12
Small organisations are essential to providing valuable help to adults in
local communities. However, this is a fragile economy and simply cannot
cope with these heavy bureaucratic demands and costs.
The Expansion of State-defined ‘Vulnerable Adults’ 13
In 1992, I [Ken McLaughlin] was appointed as a support worker for
homeless families. My main place of work was in a shared house/hostel
that could accommodate approximately 14 women and over 30 children.
No adult male residents or visitors were allowed on site as many of
the women were fleeing domestic violence. I recall asking my manager
why I did not have to undergo a police check (the precursor of today’s
CRB check). Her reply was to question why such a measure would be
necessary. The women residents, she said, were homeless, with specific
needs, but they were not vulnerable. The children were not in care; they
were being looked after by their mothers. I accepted this explanation as
entirely sensible. 14
What is striking about this episode is the extent to which, from today’s
perspective, such a response would be seen as seriously naive at best,
to grossly irresponsible and dangerous practice at worst. Today, the
children and their mothers would be automatically classed as vulnerable,
and I would be CRB checked before being allowed to set foot in the
hostel. I have often reflected on this incident in my decade in academia
as I have witnessed both the expansion of the definition of ‘vulnerable
adults’ and the related extension of those required to undergo a criminal
records bureau check for helping them.