Legal Issues: Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) Checks

By law, anyone who intends to work with or do research which brings them into unsupervised contact with children or vulnerable adults (such as adults with learning or other disabilities) must first be checked by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). This includes service users who are working as researchers, including those with disabilities. For more information contact the Criminal Records Bureau on 0870 90 90 811 or at www.crb.gov.uk or www.disclosure.gov.uk

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is an agency of the Home Office. The CRB check, known as ‘Disclosure’, was instigated in 2000 but has been more comprehensively employed since April 2002. There are two ‘grades’ of disclosure: ‘Standard’ and ‘Enhanced’. Any adult in the UK who wants to do unsupervised work with children or vulnerable adults must first be cleared by the CRB. In the past, background checks tended to be conducted on a local level. The newer CRB checks are considered to be more comprehensive.

Individuals do not generally initiate their own CRB check. It is usually initiated by each organisation/group that wishes to employ them. Usually, each organisation conducts their own CRB check and will not accept a check that has been carried out by another organisation. So, for example, if someone wishes to do work with children under the employment of two different organizations, they may need to be CRB checked twice. Organizations usually have at least one person designated to liaise with the CRB on behalf of people who need CRB clearance.

The CRB system is not without its flaws. Unfortunately, it is still possible for people who are dangerous to get ‘clearance’. Similarly, if you are wrongly convicted of something this conviction will show up on your record and you will be assumed to be guilty. (See below for further information on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974).

CRB ‘Disclosure’ also sits somewhat uncomfortably alongside the Data Protection Act. Once someone receives notification from the CRB (either ‘Standard’ or ‘Enhanced’ Disclosure) they are not actually required to show their ‘Disclosure’ form to any organization (responsible for children and/or vulnerable adults) that may wish to see it and the organization is not allowed to ask to see it. A person’s CRB status can only be checked by the CRB itself or by the named individual responsible for liaising with the CRB. Further, although organizations responsible for children and/or vulnerable adults are required by law to check the CRB status of their workers, some organizations fail to do this. Guidelines on who needs to be CRB checked and how that is managed have not always been clear or straightforward, but they are becoming more so. What is less clear however is the CRB clearance of people who are themselves deemed ‘vulnerable’. For example, whereas a non-disabled person who wishes to undertake voluntary or paid work in a residential setting for adults with learning disabilities has to be CRB checked, neither a new ‘vulnerable’ resident who wishes to move in, nor the other ‘vulnerable’ residents, need to be CRB checked; it is possible therefore that vulnerable residents may be ‘at risk’ from each other. There are implications here for Partnership Research.
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974 sets out to help people who have been convicted of a criminal offence in the past. In general, a person convicted of a criminal offence and who receives a sentence of no more than two and a half years in prison, benefits from the Act if they are not convicted again during a specified period. This period is called the rehabilitation period. In respect of CRB checks, however, the situation is somewhat different because of the ROA Exceptions Order. When assessing the suitability of a person for certain positions of trust, an employer is entitled to ask a candidate to reveal details of all convictions, whether spent or not. This in part will help ensure that children and other vulnerable groups are protected from those who may wish to do them harm by helping to prevent such people from being appointed to positions of authority and/or trust over them.

These positions of trust, or excepted professions, are set out in the Exceptions Order to the ROA.

For further information about the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act,

• Download Nacro's Detailed guide to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, written primarily for people who work with ex-offenders.
• Download Nacro's Simple guide to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which provides guidance for offenders.

CRB Checks and Partnership Research
During our Partnership Research project, we tried to find out whether learning disabled service user researchers who might come into contact with other ‘vulnerable adults’ should be subject to CRB clearance.

We requested information and advice from senior staff in national and local organisations for people with learning disabilities as well as from government officials. The advice and guidance we received was inconclusive. Where learning disabled service user researchers are employed as researchers, there are clear procedures in place - through personnel departments - to CRB check all employees who come into contact with children or vulnerable adults. But if a learning disabled service user is unpaid, or receives sessional or one-off payments, or is both 'researcher' and 'researched' the issues are far less straightforward. Just as with the residential setting example above, it seems that there is clear guidance for 'non-disabled' people but lack of clarity regarding CRB clearance for people who are themselves deemed 'vulnerable'.

The vulnerability of people with learning disabilities to abuse has been widely documented (O'Callaghan and Murphy 2003), however small numbers of 'vulnerable adults' with learning disabilities may themselves be perpetrators of abuse (see Mental Health Foundation Briefing No.12: Working with men with learning disabilities who sexually abuse others). The possibility that learning disabled researchers, like any other researchers, could abuse others should be borne in mind. However, learning disabled researchers are also 'vulnerable adults' themselves and could be 'at risk' from other 'vulnerable adults' while undertaking research.

References
O’Callaghan, A.C. and Murphy, G. (2003) The impact of abuse on men and women with severe learning disabilities and their families¸ British Journal of Learning Disabilities, Vol.31, pp175-180.