Why have we changed this?
To make sure we are taking all the steps we can to protect children and vulnerable adults receiving care and support, we need workers to apply for registration as soon as possible when they start a new role.
We can only investigate the fitness to practise of workers registered with us or who have applied to be registered with us. However, where we receive concerning information about a person who is likely to apply for registration in the future, we may hold that information in case they apply later.
This means when someone applies for registration with us, we might already hold concerning information which calls into question their fitness to practise. Employers might not know we hold information about someone they’ve employed.
The sooner a worker applies, the sooner we can check if we hold concerning information about them and let their employer know. This allows the employer to take any necessary action to reduce risks to people using services and to colleagues.
Likewise, the sooner a worker applies, the sooner we can investigate the information and take a view on whether the concerns are well-founded and whether we should grant the application.
What this means in practice
In the last three years, our Fitness to Practise Department has considered cases involving information held about previously unregistered workers 206 times. In most cases, these resulted in no action being taken against the worker.
However, in one case, an applicant had failed to declare on their application that they had recently been dismissed due to allegations of abuse of a child in their care. Only when we received their registration application for their new role were we able to investigate the alleged behaviour and alert the individual’s current employer to the concerns.
While the worker had given their version of events to their new employer, only through appropriate investigation could we establish the facts and take appropriate actions to ensure we were satisfied of the worker’s ability to practise safely and effectively.
This helps demonstrate how the new requirement for workers to apply within three months allows us to identify and act on fitness to practise concerns more quickly.