At the time of writing, helpline workers (including volunteers) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are eligible for Criminal Records Bureau checks if their work is ‘normally concerned with the provision of any form of information, advice or guidance wholly or mainly to children which relates to their physical, emotional or educational well-being and is provided by means of telephone or other form of electronic communication including the internet and mobile telephone text messaging’ (Home Office, February 2011).
In Scotland, helpline workers who routinely do either of the following:
- provide advice or guidance to a child which relates to its physical or emotional well-being
- moderate an electronic interactive communication system intended for use wholly or mainly by children
- provide support, advice or counselling to the same adult on a formal and frequent basis
- manage people who do any of the above
are covered by the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme. Helplines affected are required to enable new workers, or existing workers in new roles, to become members of the PVG scheme from the end of February 2011. Existing workers in helplines affected will need to join the scheme over the period 2011-2014.
If your workers do not fall into either of the above categories, then checks are not necessary, although they may be required if helpline workers also undertake face-to-face work with clients as part of a larger role.
Whether you operate recruitment checks or not, THA recommends that you have supervision systems to monitor the behaviour of helpline workers so that you can identify and respond to any inappropriate conduct by helpline workers towards helpline users.
