If your community group or organisation has volunteers or paid staff doing ‘regulated work’, the Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act sets out legal requirements which give your committee or board members a legal duty to ensure that those people are not barred from working with children or vulnerable adults.
The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme can help your group to fulfil its legal responsibility and should be used as a vital tool in your recruitment procedures.
When your group asks someone to do ‘regulated work’ with children and/or adults for the first time (whether an existing or new member of staff), you need to ensure that the individual joins the PVG Scheme.
When the individual applies to join the Scheme, the PVG Scheme Records will show whether or not they are already barred. If they have no relevant convictions and are not barred, their membership of the Scheme will mean that your group can access disclosure records to check further. For example, you may want to access the vetting information held on the Scheme Records.
If an individual applying to join the PVG Scheme is already barred, they will not be issued with a scheme membership. In this case, both the individual and the organisation will be advised by letter that the individual is barred from doing that type of regulated work.
Once a person leaves a position with your group/organisation, your committee or board members may decide to take the initiative and inform CRBS/Disclosure Scotland. Legally the responsibility for informing Disclosure Scotland/CRBS that a person has left their position of regulated work lies with the individual who holds scheme membership. In this case, Disclosure Scotland/CRBS would contact your group/organisation to confirm this.
For more information on the legal requirmets of an organisation please click on following link: