Cheshire County Welfare Officer's Newsletter Jan 2010

Firstly may I wish you all a Happy New Year and hope that preparations for the 2010 season are beginning to get underway.

The items I wish to cover in this edition are:
A) Vetting and Barring Scheme including CRB
B) Time to Listen/ Safeguarding & Protecting Children courses

Vetting and Barring scheme
You will now all be aware I hope, that the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 came into force on the 12th Oct 2009.
Due to some adverse publicity about certain definitions of who would have to be registered with the ISA (Independent Safeguarding Authority) a review was carried out by Sir Roger Singleton. That review is now complete and the 10 recommendations made in the report have been accepted by the Government.
The full report can be read on the ISA website www.isa-gov.org.uk

The definition of who need to be registered with the ISA when taking part in a `Regulated Activity` reads

Regulated activity involve contact with children or vulnerable adults and are:

Of a specific nature Frequently
e.g. teaching,training,care.supervision More than once a week

and/or
or and

In a specified place Intensively
e.g school, childrens home 4 or more days in a 30
day period

and/or

Overnight
Between 2am - 6am

I understand that this may seem complicated but if you use the above table and ask "does that person do those things" it will give you an idea if they need to be registered.
A new coach, for example, would be `of a specific nature and intensively` and would therefore required to be registered

Two important dates in relation to registration
26th July 2010 - All new entrants to a role will have to be registered (it will not be a legal requirement at this stage to register before taking up the role)

November 2010 - All new entrants and movers MUST be ISA Registered before taking up role.

CRB forms are being changed for use from July 2010 to include ISA registration (which again will be free to volunteers) Whilst CRBs are normally valid for 3 years ISA registration is only needed to be done once.
The roll out of ISA will take about 5 years and so in the first year only new entrants will need to register.
It also means that CRBs which expire after July 2010 will have an extended `life`
1St year - CRBs only for new entrants
2nd year - CRBs for those who should have had them but didn't
3rd year onwards begin renewals of existing CRBs

I therefore suggest that if some of your clubs CRBs are due to expire during the 2010 season you get then renewed before July.

I will be talking at League, Forums and the CCCC about the new legislation but if any club wants me to come to them to explain the changes please let me know.

Time to Listen / Safeguarding & Protecting Children courses
We are running 2 TTL courses next month, the details of which have already been circulated and are also available on the Cheshire Cricket Board website.
As a CWO you also reminded that you have to attend a Safeguarding & Protecting Children course every 3 years as well - these again are advertised on the CCB website.

That is all for now. I am sorry that the VBS info is rather long and protracted but it is very important that clubs are aware what is required.

As always, any questions, you know how to contact me.

I wish you all a successful 2010 season.

Andy