New measures put in place to protect the elderly

Thousand of vulnerable elderly people will benefit from new safeguards that have been introduced to protect them from abuse by health or social care staff. The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) has tightened up its existing rules so that it must now be informed about any employee working in the health, social care or education sectors may have harmed a child or vulnerable adult, or where there it is considered that there is a risk of harm. The ISA will then give each case detailed consideration under the Vetting and Barring Scheme, to decide if the employee in question should be barred from working with vulnerable children or adults in future. The ISA has been given new powers to extend the scope of any bar that it is put in place whilst the Government has also introduced new criminal penalties for employees that have been found to abuse people in their care. ISA Chair, Sir Roger Singleton, comments: ‘Today is the first major step in enhancing safeguarding to vulnerable groups, since the creation of the ISA. It brings with it a new era, where – under the Vetting and Barring Scheme – we are strengthening information sharing with employers and regulatory bodies to reduce the opportunities for unsuitable people having access to children and vulnerable adults.’