Under the Protection of Children Act 1999 and the Criminal Justice and Court Service Act 2000, it is an offence for an organisation to offer employment that involves regular contact with young people under the age of 18 years to anyone who has been convicted of certain specified offences, or included on lists of people considered unsuitable for such work held by the Department for education and the Department of Health.
Inappropriate people need to be stopped from working with children and young people. To ensure the safety of children and young people who attend or are under the jurisdiction of athletics clubs, UK Athletics will manage the process for all persons coming into regular contact with such children and young people to submit to a check by the Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS).
The Code of Practise is intended to ensure that information released in an Enhanced Disclosures by the Disclosure & Barring Service is used fairly and to provide assurance to applicants that this is the case.
UK Athletics Limited on behalf of the sport shall observe guidance issued or supported by the Disclosure & Barring Service on the use of Disclosure Information and in particular, recipients of Disclosure information shall not unfairly discriminate against the subject of Disclosure information on the basis of conviction or other details revealed.
The Registered person on behalf of UK Athletics Limited will consider the details in any Disclosure information, which will not necessarily be a bar to the person continuing to be involved with athletics.
The Registered person will discuss any matters revealed in Disclosure Information with the person seeking to be involved with athletics before placing the matter before a Case Management Group who will consider withdrawing the Governing Bodies consent for them to continue to have access to children and young persons involved with the sport.
UK Athletics Limited will make each subject of Disclosure aware of the existence of this Code of Practise and to make a copy available on request.
The Registered Person will ensure that Disclosure information is not passed to persons not authorised to receive it.
The Registered Person must ensure that Disclosures and the information they contain are available only to those who need to have access in the course of their duties.
Disclosure information will be securely stored and UK Athletics Limited will not retain Disclosures nor a record of Disclosure Information contained within them for longer than is required for the particular purpose. In general this should be no longer than six months after the date on which the relevant decision to allow the individual to continue or not with their role within the sport or after the date on which any dispute about the accuracy of the Disclosure Information has been resolved. This period should be exceeded only in very exceptional circumstances, which justify retention for a longer period.
The Registered Person will cooperate with requests from the Disclosure & Barring Service to undertake assurance checks as to the proper use and safekeeping of Disclosure Information.
The Registered Person will report to the Disclosure & Barring Service and suspected malpractice in relation to this Code of Practise or any suspected offences in relation to the misuse of Disclosure information.
Updated March 2016