SCIE Practice guide 7: Making referrals to the POVA list

Foreword

The task of caring for our most vulnerable citizens is a rewarding and fulfilling career for staff and managers alike. The job of caring can also be very challenging and occasionally carers do not meet the standards we have the right to expect. In some instances the standards of care are unacceptable and staff need to be disciplined or in the cases of managers, have their registration removed. In those instances, a new duty has been placed on providers - to make a referral to the POVA list where misconduct has caused harm or placed people at risk of harm.

I recognise that employers face a difficult set of decisions when vulnerable people have been harmed or placed at risk by those who are responsible for providing the care. This guidance is intended to help employers through the referral process when they have decided that disciplinary action is needed. It builds on what we have learnt about operating the scheme since its introduction in July 2004 and it clarifies when referrals should be made. The guidance makes a distinction between very serious cases of abuse where action is needed swiftly to protect vulnerable adults - and those of less serious cases where the employers own disciplinary procedures should precede a referral.

Our analysis shows that around one third of POVA referrals do not result in people being placed on the list. This is because either the evidence to place a person on the list is not being provided, or that the criteria for provisional listing has not been met. The aim of the guidance is to give employers better information about when and who to refer. More effective and better evidenced referrals will increase the protection of vulnerable people by removing those who are clearly unsuitable to work in regulated social care.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the POVA Advisory Group, the POVA team in Darlington and also Julie Barnes at SCIE, for drawing together the experiences of operating the POVA scheme and procuring this guidance which I commend to you.

Ivan Lewis, Department of Health, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Care Services.