Vulnerable adults put at risk by crisis at Disclosure & Barring Service
  • Thousands of known or suspected offenders are not being barred from working with vulnerable adults in care homes and hospitals.
  • Figures released by the Labour Party show a crisis in the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS), which has led to a 90 per cent drop in the number of people being barred from working with vulnerable adults, including the elderly and those with learning disabilities
  • There has been a drop both in those barred from working with vulnerable adults following a conviction for an offence, and in those barred on the basis of intelligence from the industry.

In response to the figures, Yvette Cooper MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary said:

“These figures are shocking. We now know the terrible trauma caused by abusers like Jimmy Savile being given easy and unrestricted access to settings where he came into regular contact with children and vulnerable adults. Yet these figures show we have not learnt lessons from the past. The barring system is still not keeping safe those it is designed to protect.
 
“We warned Theresa May that her reforms were creating loopholes that would put people at risk. Now it turns out the loopholes are much bigger than we thought and too many convicted criminals, sex offenders and abusers are not being barred from working with children or vulnerable adults. The Government needs to get a grip on this fast. Those who are vulnerable need to be protected from abuse, and not put at risk because ministers reforms have failed.”

Diana Johnson MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Office Minister, said:

“After recent cases showing the mistreatment of elderly people in care homes, news that the number barred from working with vulnerable adults has plummeted is extremely worrying.

“There’s been a fall in discretionary barring - cases where there’s been suspicious conduct but not yet a criminal conviction, or offences that don’t mean an automatic ban - from 2,121 in 2009 to only 441 in 2013. This is despite 6,465 referrals from the police, local authorities and care providers in the same year 

“The DBS is meant to stop people who have been identified as unsuitable for working with the most vulnerable adults in society. This data raises serious questions about what’s going on.

“It’s already easier to gain work in the adult care sector since the Tory-led Government abandoned plans for a positive register, like the state registering of nurses. Now it seems questionable whether even the ‘negative register’ of those barred is working properly.

“The confusion in the data obtained over the past year from the DBS as to the numbers being barred, due to problems with their IT system, also offers little reassurance to the public.”

Gary Fitzgerald, Chief Executive of Elder Abuse said:

“This information is both appalling and frightening. The Barring service was intended to be our last line of defence against people who were identified as abusers, but this data suggests that it has been reduced to no more than an illusion of protection.

“It is already too easy for unscrupulous people to gain employment in the adult care sector since the coalition dumped the plans for a positive register (like the nursing register) and now it seems that even the negative register has been weakened to the point where it is almost meaningless.

“The reality of this situation is that we have very vulnerable people at the mercy of those who should never be allowed near them, not just because the standards are so low that almost anyone can gain employment in the adult care sector, but also because even those that are known to pose a risk can also gain such employment. This is a disaster waiting to happen.”