We have produced guidance which sets out our responsibilities and duties, to refer unsuitable people to Disclosure Scotland, responding to requests for information from Disclosure Scotland and what we are required to do if we are alerted that a provider is under consideration for barring.

 Read our guidance below.

PVG Guidance Part 2 - Referrals, consideration for listing, risk assessment and determination

Other updates about the PVG Scheme include:

1. Over 16 year olds residing in childminders home – people moving in

Please note that Disclosure Scotland is unable to process Enhanced Disclosure checks for people unless they are actually already a resident of the household. In situations where people are moving in to the house it is illegal to submit an application until they have moved into the house.

2. Exceptions to Enhanced Disclosure checks – residents

The Care Inspectorate recently decided not to request an Enhanced Disclosure check on a 16 year old resident, as the person concerned was significantly physically disabled and was assessed as posing no current or historical risk to children.  The decision not to carry out the check was made by the chair of the Fitness Policy Group. While we anticipate that this would be exceptional, if staff identify similar situations these should be referred to the Fitness Policy Group for a determination.

3. Committee Menbers/Office Bearers

Where a provider is a board/committee the Care Inspectorate continues to check the suitability of 3 office bearers (chair, secretary, treasurer) at the point of registration and where there are changes in these post holders/appointments.

These checks include PVG membership.

4. Three Month rule - PVG

When the PVG scheme was introduced the Care Inspectorate took the view that new scheme members could share their PVG membership scheme record where this was less than 3 months old to prevent multiple PVG applications being submitted to Disclsore Scotland while the system was new.

Now that the PVG is established, this position has been revisited. 

  • Existing PVG scheme members - where an applicant - new provider, childminder or childminder assistant informs us that they are already an existing PVG scheme member, the Care inspectorate will (as well as view the Scheme record) require that the individual completes a PVG update, countersigned by the Care Inspectorate, irrespective if whether they became a member in the past 3 months for a different purpose.  (In the event that the Care Inspectorate countersgned the original PVG application an update is not necessary – this may be where an applicant is already a provider of another service).

In the situations below there will be no changes to the current arrangements;

  • where we have suggested that people approach CRBS to obtain their PVG membership and they share the Scheme Record this with us immediately, as part of the registration porcess, this position remains unchanged.
  • Childminders residents in household over 16.  – where the Care Inspectorate is alerted that the resident in the household is a PVG scheme member for children, we will continue to view the scheme record if less than 3 months old. Where these are more than 3 months old, the Care Inspectorate will continue to seek an enhanced check