SCIE Practice guide 7: Making referrals to the POVA list

What happens after referral?

Practice point: What happens when referrals are received?

The POVA team check referrals to ensure that they meet the legal criteria:

• Is the organisation one of those specified in the Care Standards Act?
• Is the person a care worker?
• Did the misconduct harm, or risk harm to, a vulnerable adult?
• Is the person who has been referred unsuitable for further care work?

The team also scan the referrals looking for cases of serious harm so that these can be given priority.

If the referral is within the legal definitions, the referral information is reviewed and further information obtained if needed. A decision whether or not to list the individual provisionally, pending further review, is made as quickly as possible. If the individual is provisionally listed, the following actions are taken:

• The individual is considered for listing on the Protection of Children Act (POCA) list if it is thought that they are unsuitable for work with children.
• Both the organisation and the individual are notified of the provisional POVA listing.
• Except when there are on-going police investigations, the individual can comment on the evidence supplied with the referral. They will receive full details of the information submitted by the referring organisation and copies of all papers.
• The individual can make written observations within 28 days of provisional listing as to why they should not be confirmed on the POVA list (and the POCA list where this applies).
• The referring organisation is asked to comment on these observations.
• This process of information gathering and exchange continues for as long as it takes for the POVA team to be able to make recommendations to the Secretary of State for Health.
• When ready, the POVA team prepares a report for the Secretary of State, based on all the available evidence, which includes a recommendation about whether or not to list the individual.
• If the Secretary of State decides that the individual's name should not be confirmed on the POVA list, the POVA team immediately removes the provisional entry from that list and from the POCA list if the name has also been provisionally included. The individual and the referring organisation are informed of this.
• If the Secretary of State decides that the individual's name should be confirmed on the POVA list, the POVA team immediately confirms the listing.
• Immediately the Secretary of State has made the decision, notice of it is sent to the individual and to the referring organisation. At the same time, the individual is either removed from or confirmed on the list.
• Where an individual has been provisionally listed while suspended or temporarily transferred to a non-care position, the decision to confirm the listing (or not) is made only when the referring organisation has made its final decision about the individual.
• Referral information is kept for future reference by the POVA team even if an individual is not listed. A pattern of repeated referrals may lead to a person being listed.
• Individuals who are confirmed on the list stay on it for 10 years, after which they can apply for a review. This time period is only five years if the individual was under the age of 18 when they were first listed.