Tens of thousands of migrants are working with vulnerable elderly people in
care homes without undergoing full criminal record checks, The Times
has learnt.
Senior police officers have alerted Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to the
scale of the problem in a report detailing the impact on the UK of migration
from Eastern Europe.
The introduction of a watchdog next year to vet care workers will not address
the problem, they add.
It is estimated that about 400,000 elderly people are being looked after in
care homes. This figure is expected to reach 750,000 by 2031 as more and
more people live longer. Many of the homes would be unable to operate
without employing foreign workers, as British workers are unwilling to take
the jobs.
Ms Smith has been told that tens of thousands of migrants are being employed
in care homes and other areas of social care without being fully checked
because the authorities cannot access foreign criminal records.
An estimated 240,000 foreign-born people were employed in the care-related
sector in 2006. They include more than 105,000 care assistants and home
carers. A further 23,000 people were working as childminders and 23,000 as
nursing auxiliaries.
More than 20,000 workers from Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have registered as care workers since
their countries joined the EU in May 2004.
Since 2005 the EU has been trying to set up a system for the exchange of
criminal records, but progress has been slow and the Criminal Records Bureau
in Britain is planning only pilot projects with four countries.
The directive does not address the issue of checks on migrants from countries
outside the EU.
Senior police officers have warned the Government that even after a register
designed to prevent unsuitable people from working with the vulnerable comes
into force full checks on migrants will still not take place.
The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), which will begin operating next
year, will decide who should be barred from working with the vulnerable by
using existing government-run barring lists and a Criminal Records Bureau
check which shows whether a person has offended in the UK.
An estimated 11 million individuals will have to pass through the authority’s
checking procedures in the first five years of operations, but police are
saying that the system is not foolproof.
A report by Peter Fahy, Chief Constable of Cheshire, and Grahame Maxwell,
Chief Constable of North Yorkshire, gives warning of the huge cost
implications to police of having to carry out checks on behalf of the new
authority, set up under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.
It adds: “The Act will additionally have huge implications for migrants
working within the NHS, care homes, social services and most public services
due to checks against nonUK nationals being unachievable due to the data not
being held by their country of origin.”
The report on the implications of migration from eight Eastern European states
was prepared for the Association of Chief Police Officers and it was
discussed later at a meeting between Ms Smith and senior officers.
Last night Paul Bates, of Help the Aged, said that it was extremely important
to ensure that all people working with vulnerable adults should go through
strenuous and extensive background checks to ensure their suitability to
perform what is a difficult task.
He said: “As a charity, we would be extremely disturbed if these checks are
not made and people slipped through the net,” he said. Every ‘i’ should be
dotted and every ‘t’ crossed.”
The police report highlights a loophole in both the existing checking system
and the one that will begin operating next year.
Care homes and agencies supplying foreigners to work with the elderly and sick
can get a check from the Criminal Records Bureau. But this will only
indicate whether the authorities have intelligence suggesting unsuitability
to work with vulnerable people.
Peter Cullimore, chairman of the nurses’ and carers’ sector of the Recruitment
and Employment Confederation, said: “For many of the countries, and
certainly the East European states, I cannot see any chance of setting up
arrangements with them so we could get checks done.
“We have no way of finding out whether they have criminal records before they
came to this country.”
Migrants from South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia make up another substantial
proportion of workers in the care sector, according to Mr Cullimore.
He said that many migrants from those states worked as private carers in the
homes of elderly people rather than in nursing and care homes and that,
because agencies were unable to have full checks carried out on migrants,
interviews were crucial.
“We rely on face-to-face interviews and checking references and
recommendations,” he said. “The interview is so important because we can
pick up on an applicant’s background, looking at their work record. There is
no foolproof method.”
He said that employment agencies wanted the Government to take urgent steps to
ensure that the Criminal Records Bureau could gain access to police records
in other countries. An EU directive requiring each member state to establish
a central officer for information-sharing on criminal records was agreed in
2005.
While Britain receives some conviction details, the Criminal Records Bureau
admits that coverage is patchy. It advises foreign workers to seek
certificates of good behaviour, but within the care industry it is privately
admitted that many people are working without full checks.
A spokesman for the Independent Safeguarding Authority said that work was
under way to get access to overseas criminal convictions.
“The ISA’s partners in the Criminal Records Bureau remain committed to
improving access to overseas criminal convictions data and last year began
working towards exchanging information for employment vetting purposes
across borders.
Pilot projects are being planned with the Republic of Ireland, France, Poland
and Australia.”
He added: “The UK already has one of the most advanced systems in the
world for carrying out pre-employment checks. The introduction of the ISA
from October 2009 will be a crucial step forward, creating a constantly
updated single central record of more than 11 million people who work with
children and vulnerable adults. It will also contain information from
employers about workers’ behaviour or suitability. We have always said that
further job-specific checks may still be needed and employers should always
follow good practice when recruiting.”
