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Policy and practice

Written by Pam Hibbert, principal policy officer at Barnardo's

Protecting children from sex offenders - will public disclosure help?

The Government this week announced four pilot schemes which will allow members of the public to ask for details on individuals if they think a child is at risk. Although this is not a Sarah's Law (ignore what the News of the World says!) and there are restrictions and safeguards, there are still concerns that the risks of information aboout sex offenders 'escaping' widely are greater than the benefits. I remain unconvinced that the measures to protect an offenders own children or any previous victims are weak and that there is no effective sanction to prevent individuals given any information they recieve to anyone else including journalists! Lets hope that these really are pilots and that the evaluation will be robust and vigorous.

Published Feb 21 2008, 11:50 AM by Pam Hibbert

Comments

 

Tim Davies said:

How we respond to the risk of offenders - and being able to balance the risks and benefits is a key issue right now - particularly in light of government making explicit policies and strategies on the sole topic of 'safety'...

I'd be really interested to know what you see being on both sides of the 'benefit' and 'risk' balance? (Perhaps a blogged list...?)

February 25, 2008 2:36 PM
 

Clive Wood said:

Experience from practice in Scotland suggests that a significant problem in protecting young people is Employment Legislation, or perhaps more specifically, the Tribunals understanding of the issues around soft disclosure in the context of dismissal.

In 2007, I managed to achieve a degree of success at the Employment Appeals Tribunal in Edinburgh, when a decision to dismiss a worker on "Soft Disclosure" information was upheld after the local Tribunal found in favour of the employee. The risks the employee presented were significant in residential care, and it was a real surprise to find the local Tribunal failed to recognise these issue.

It is vital that when legislation is approved to protect young people, employers are allowed to use certain soft disclosures to terminate contacts, particularly if they feel this is justifiable in the context of vulnerable young people.. After a long battle, case law is now established in Scotland to achieve this. New Legislation takes some time to filter into practice, the above took almost three years of legal advice and some hard decisions to establish the practical benefit of the new Disclosure system in Scotland..

Clive Wood is Director of Staff2Care.com, a new social care staffing agency based in central Scotland.

August 6, 2008 9:31 PM

Children & Young People Now is the official publication for members of the National Children's Bureau and The National Youth Agency.