LADO investigation

[Perzival]

Has anyone been involved with a LADO investigation please who could share more about the process and what happens please? Specifically how the decision to have DBS infirmed for future searched.

DS has been very let down with the event caught on cctv (don't want to go into too much detail). The Carers have been fired already as there is no question about what happened due to the cctv.

DS wasn't harmed thankfully but was at great risk of harm and the carers lied to try to cover themselves.

Does anyone know how the decision is made for DBS to be informed for searches and will we as parents have any input into this?

Parents have no say as to what goes onto a persons record, therefore no say about the DBS check.

It's only cautions and convictions that appear on standard DBS checks. Some relevant allegations appear on enhanced checks. That information only comes from the police national computer.

The employers are under a legal obligation to make a referral to the DBS if you have fired someone for causing harm to a child or vulnerable person. The DBS service then decides what happens next and you have no input on that.

Hi, Thank you for your replies. He wasn't harmed but was put in substantial risk of harm/ neglected by them.

I found the National LADO network website last night when I was trying to find out more. It mentions may be harmed. They've already been fired as shat they did was that bad. If there was no physical harm and it was neglect/ may have been harmed will the employer still have to report it to DBS please? The SW who visited said the LADO dealing with it will tell the employer what they need to do when it's all investigated. I don't think it can be anything other than a substantiated claim die to the cctv and witnesses etc.

I do appreciate any help as I'm not thinking clearly about it, I watched the cctv and it was awful.

You don't 'Report stuff to DBS'. It's a disclosure of charges and convictions. Not even arrests go on it. It will be the police/CPS that press charges if necessary.

You sure?

https://www.gov.uk/report-unfit-work-children-vulnerable-adults

From that link above it looks like the HAVE to report it. It states in bold that it's against the law not to.

I don't know how you check that they've done that in your position op. Hopefully someone with actual knowledge can advise properly.

I would ask the employer directly, they almost certainly won’t tell you the outcome, but they should be able to tell you whether they’ve done it or not.

There's an additional process for people who have been found to have harmed or put at risk vulnerable adults or children.

Their (usually former) employers have a legal responsibility to report this to DBS if it is necessary to 'bar' someone from working with vulnerable people again.

That's why it's called the discloses and barring service not just the disclosures service.

I work in adult safeguarding and we make it a recorded action from a safeguarding meeting for the employers to do this if we think it's required. I would assume it's similar in children's safeguarding meetings.

Thank you for the information and explainations. I appreciate the help. I know the LA have temporarily stopped the company working in our LA while they investigate and they're going to their head office today to go through records and I guess talk to them about what happened, then there is another strategy meeting on Wednesday. They already had one on Thursday just gone.

One of the carers works in another job with vulnerable children, I know it sounds spiteful but I honestly don't believe either of them should be in a position to do this ever again. We don't actually know how many times it's happened to my son and will never know.

Thank you. What if they don't follow the outcome to report please? Is there anyway I can check?

LADO will.keep an eye on things to ensure things are properly reported to the right authorities e.g. DBS, any registration authority.

You can always ask and see what happens- the likely answer will be that the outcome of disciplinary processes are confidential between the employer and the employee.

That includes from the local authority (although the employer does usually tell us as part of the safeguarding plan on the basis that there is a justifiable reason to share the information , although they don't actually have to!)

Whilst we set reporting it to DBS as an action for the provider we have to trust they will actually do it as we have no way of checking they have.

Proper reporting processes do form part of our monitoring of providers generally and the provider also has to include on any reference request they receive (if relevant to the job) that they have reported the person to DBS to prevent new jobs being taken up in the same industry before the DBS referral has been processed.

Are the carers registered with a professional body? In Scotland they would be registered with Scottish social services Council and would go through their processes and possibly struck off.

Thank you all again. No I don't think they're registered.

The company have already shared with me findings from the disciplinary in a report which was also sent to the LA along with other documents on how they will learn lessons etc, what new things will be put into place. They were sacked almost immediately after the company saw the cctv footage ( I guess gross misconduct) as the footage is incredibly damming.

Thank you.

Will the other setting be infirmed where they work with vulnerable people also? They're dbs will already have been checked for that job.

OP,
Name changed for this for obvious rreasons.if anyone else thinks they can identify me then please don't.

I've been involved with a LADO investigation myself. In my case it was someone I was employing to care for my child through direct payments. I can't go into specifics apart from the fact that their actions were deemed to be neglectful (and then some). I had already sacked the individual for gross misconduct. The evidence was....... difficult but proved without a shadow of a doubt that the person had done what they had done.

The outcome of the investigation was that the individual was referred to the DBS service for inclusion on the barring list. The individual was given a 10 year barring referral for child neglect. Evidence had to be provided of the individuals actions before the DBS service would process the referral.
My understanding is that it will state on a person's dbs certificate that they are subject to a barring referral and the length of time this is active for. As soon as Its processed by the DBS service it goes live. If a person wants to apply to get a barring referral lifted, the onus is on the barred person to prove why they didnt do what the referral says they did. Barred people and people under investigation are also obliged to declare this in any potential job interview as well.
Depending on the nature of what the person did in your case, they may also be subject to Police action seperate from the barring referral. I've been told that a successful conviction usually leads to a lifetime barring referral.

As someone put it when I was going through this, someone who's come to the attention of the dbs service for all the wrong reasons is unlikely to be left in charge of a pot plant, let alone a vulnerable person.

@disclosureandBARRINGservice thank you, I'm sorry you went through that and I'm grateful for you sharing.

Your case sounds similar to mine but tje LA pay the carers directly through a company rather than direct payments. What they did was clearly neglectful also and also and then some. I doubt police will prosecute though as he didn't get hurt.

I'm shell shocked with it all. The cctv footage made me sick. I don't know how these people get through the net. I'm so hurt and angry.

With you changing name and not wanting to be identified, should I not be posting about this? I haven't been told not to share etc but obviously I haven't said what happened exactly, where and names etc

I hope your child is OK and you too.

A person doesn't have to be physically hurt for the Police to take an interest. Especially if its a child that's involved. The bar for getting the Police involved is pretty low.

I namechanged purely because I don't want to be identified, neither do I want this linked to my 'everyday' MN name. You'd need to be fairly close to me and know the situation to actually be able to identify me. I'm just absolutely appaled that there is more than one individual out there who thinks it's acceptable to act in a totally abhorrent manner towards a vulnerable person.

The LADO should have called a meeting with all the carers employers and then action is decided, so in one I was involved with the other organisation also decided to suspend whilst our investigation was on-going. You can check with the LADO whether that meeting has happened. For obvious reasons they may not tell you the outcome. The LADOs I’ve worked with have been universally great and made sure all processes have been followed. Please do contact them - hopefully they will be reassuring.

@Ionacat thank you

Hi, we've been told the police won't be involved. Can I report myself to101 or will this be wasting police time please? Does anyone know?