The Vetting database that will be required when the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act comes into force this October has already attracted opprobrium. Most notably, perhaps from writers like Philip Pullman and Anne Fine who work regularly in schools, as well as Henry Porter in the Observer Now the Manifesto Club has started a petition calling for the database to be reconsidered. It is a welcome response to what looks to be a piece of legislation both damaging – because it creates fear and deters people from becoming volunteers - and excessive – the Independent estimates 11 million may have to register. It will also add to the great mass of over-regulation already in place.
As the petition puts it, the database “damage[s] adult-child relations and undermine[s] the capacity of adults to contribute to children’s welfare”. It is all too likely to prove another step towards a society where adults are unwilling to volunteer to help children or other vulnerable groups. Any attempt to assist distressed or endangered people seems now to be viewed by the government with suspicion, as its legislation turns all those engaged with helping others into potential predators.
The guidance as to who will be required to register on this database has yet to be finished. The draft obtained by the Manifesto Club shows that it will be confusing, not to mention apparently inconsistent or unhelpful (see here for a more detailed look). Someone who volunteers once a month for 3 months of the year would have to register, but someone volunteering every 6 weeks for the whole of the year would not, for example. The convolutions are not always easily understandable, and the hair splitting involved in determining who should be on the database would put lawyers to shame. Volunteer Mark Timlett remarks on the Manifesto Club site that the additional red tape and paranoia means “many experienced volunteers leave their roles because of the increased bureaucracy, which has led to a rise in the incidents of bad practice by their less-committed replacements”.
The Vetting database will be the largest of its kind in the world. Given the government’s track record with losing large databases why would anyone want to provide their information, let alone pay the government for entering it. Many volunteers may decide not to offer their time. Given the extent to which many vulnerable groups rely on the goodwill of unpaid volunteers and carers, it seems staggeringly counter-productive to go ahead with this legislation and database in its current form.
Those who wish to encourage volunteering and caring for vulnerable groups, or indeed anyone who agrees with the Manifesto Club that the attempt “to regulate all 'relations of trust' between adults and children has created a suspicious and irrational policy”, can sign the petition today here.