This policy, its procedures and guidelines are based on the principals contained within UK and International legislation, Government guidance and take into account the following legislation:

• The Children Act 1989
• The Children (Scotland) Act 1995
• The Police Act 1997
• The Protection of Children Act 1999
• The Human Rights Act 1998
• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child
• Race Relations Act
• Sex Discrimination Acts
• Disability Discrimination Act 1995
• Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974
• The Data Protection Act

The Protection of Children (Scotland) Act 2003, (POCSA) allows Scottish Ministers to maintain a list of persons deemed unsuitable to work with children. The Act covers both employed persons and volunteers.

The list will be known as the Disqualified from Working with Children List. It will help strengthen safeguards already in place to protect children. The definition of a child in this legislation is a person under the age of 18 – the same as the Part V of the Police Act 1997.

An Individual will be included on the List when they have been deemed unsuitable to work with children and a Referral has been made to have them added. Organisations must ensure they do not employ someone who is included on this List, as in doing so they will have committed an offence. Individuals on the List will commit an offence if they seek employment in a childcare position whilst knowingly on the List.

Access to this list will only be available through the Disclosure Scotland process, thereby making police checks on new staff and volunteers mandatory. Remember access to police checks, also known as Standard and Enhanced Disclosures, is possible under Part V of the Police Act 1997 for safer recruitment purposes and therefore retrospective checks should not be carried out.

In order to comply with the above legislation please consider the following points:

Recruitment: When recruiting new staff/ volunteers your Club you must follow the recruitment procedures laid out in the BYAFA Child Protection Policy. You must ensure that you obtain a Disclosure Application as part of the recruitment process for all new members who will have regular, unsupervised access to young people.

If the Welfare Officer has resigned and a police check is needed whilst a replacement is sought then the BAFA Child Protection Officer should be contacted.

If an incident occurs where a child has been caused harm or placed at risk of harm then the Club Welfare Officer should refer to the flow chart in the BYAFA Child Protection Policy. The Welfare Officer should alert the BYAFA Welfare Officer, the BAFA Child Protection Officer and/or the appropriate external agency. Should any consequential investigation result in the removal of an individual from a BYAFA organisation then a Referral has to be made to the Scottish Ministers. Clubs will, as normal, have the full support of BYAFA throughout any Child Protection case.

For further information on this legislation please contact the BYAFA Welfare Officer for a copy of the Scottish Executive Information Note

The Act makes four principal changes to the Law:

• It places the existing Department of Health Consultancy Service Index (a list of persons considered to be unsuitable to work with children) onto a statutory basis. It then provides for names to be referred to this newly created Protection of Children Act List and also a right of appeal to a new Tribunal against inclusion on the Protection of Children Act List (and also inclusion on List 99). It also extends the scheme to health care services provided to children.

• It amends s218 of the Education Reform Act 1988 to enable the Department for Education and Employment to identify people who are put on List 99 because they are not fit and proper persons to work with children.

• It amends Part V of the Police Act 1997 to enable the Criminal Records Bureau, when established, to disclose information about people who are included on the Protection of Children Act List or List 99 along with their criminal records. In this way the Act provides for a "one stop shop" system of checking persons seeking to work with children.

• It requires child care organisations (as defined in the Act) proposing to employ someone in a child care position (as defined) to ensure that individuals are checked through the "one stop shop" against the Protection of Children Act List and the relevant part of List 99 and not to employ anyone who is included on either list.

The Act also contains other provisions, the most important of which are:

• To enable organisations (other than child care organisations as defined within the Act) to refer names to the Protection of Children Act List.

• To permit the Secretary of State to consider the transfer of names currently held on the DH Consultancy Service Index to be transferred to the Protection of Children Act List.

• To allow organisations to access the new Protection of Children Act List and List 99 without first going through the Criminal Records Bureau until such time as the "one stop shop" comes into operation within the Bureau.

Although sporting organisations are not covered by the mandatory aspects of the Act, unless they meet the definition of a child care organisation, they are encouraged to refer names to the Secretary of State for consideration of inclusion on the POCA List. Sporting organisations are also reminded that while it is not mandatory for them to carry out these checks, they are still considered an essential part of the pre-employment process.