All children and young people in Scotland have the right to be cared for and protected from harm and to grow up in a safe environment in which their rights and needs are respected.

Everyone has a responsibility to protect children; to ensure that they are effectively safeguarded from abuse, to promote the welfare of children and to report suspected child abuse to the relevant authorities.  This includes your community group.
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Child abuse is defined loosely as basic needs not being met, in a manner appropriate to their age and stage of development and being at risk through avoidable acts of commission or omission on the part of relatives, guardians and carers. Professionals working to protect children (that is, police, health workers and social workers) have further defined child abuse according to the categories of physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. ​

Key points

• If your community group or organisation has volunteers or paid staff which you consider to be undertaking regulated work, your committee or board has a legal responsibility to make sure that those people are suitable to work with vulnerable adults.
•  It is an offence for an individual who is barred to undertake regulated work. It is also an offence for an employer to offer a barred individual regulated work unless they can show that they did not know and could not reasonably be expected to know that the individual was barred. The Children’s List holds a record of those who are considered to be unsuitable to work with ‘protected’ adults and therefore barred from regulated work.
•  You should appoint one person on your committee to monitor these issues. They should be responsible for ensuring your policies are up to date, clearly displayed, read and understood by your staff and volunteers. They should also know who the social work contact is in your area and have the phone numbers handy for both social work and police.
•  If your organisation has paid staff or volunteers who are carrying out regulated work, you need access to scheme records.
•  An umbrella body is an organisation which has registered with Disclosure Scotland and is able to apply for Standard and Enhanced Disclosures and PVG Scheme membership for individuals, for positions which are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, 1974. Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services is such a body who provide free disclosure records, guidance, advice and support to voluntary sector organisations working with children and protected adults.
•  Once an individual becomes a member of the PVG Scheme, Disclosure Scotland will add any new vetting information to their scheme record as and when it arises, rather than simply collating information whenever a disclosure needs to be issued.  Where that information suggests that the scheme member may have become unsuitable to work with children or protected adults, there will be a consideration of the case and if appropriate, the individual will be listed on one or both lists.

Links for more information
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Scottish Government
Child protection overview
https://www.gov.scot/policies/child-protection/
 
Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services
Disclosure Services – guidance and to register to receive PVG information
https://www.volunteerscotland.net/for-organisations/disclosure-services/
 
Legislation
Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Act 2007
http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2007/14/contents
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