Organisations have a legal duty to report to Disclosure Scotland any harmful behaviour which indicates that an individual may be unsuitable to undertake a regulated role. This is called ‘making a referral’ [1].
A referral must be made when the organisation believes the person shows harmful behaviour AND they:
- were dismissed as a result
- would or might have been dismissed, but left before they could be
- are permanently moved away from work with children or protected adults
The harmful (or potentially harmful) behaviour must be reported even if it takes place outside of work, or if the employer finds out about the behaviour after the employee has left. The Disclosure Scotland website gives examples of harmful behaviour that must be referred.
A referral form can be found on the Disclosure Scotland website. It is an offence not to make a referral within three months. Note: A referral to Disclosure Scotland does not replace other legal duties to report concerns elsewhere and referrals to other organisations, such as the GDC, must still be made if appropriate.
If the outcome of the referral is ‘listing’ (i.e. the individual is added to the PVG Children’s list and/or PVG Adult's list), the individual must be removed from that regulated role. All other interested parties (e.g. employers) will be informed by Disclosure Scotland. If you are informed by Disclosure Scotland that an individual undertaking a regulated role in your practice is ‘listed’, you must remove the individual from that regulated role. It is an offence not to remove listed individuals from regulated roles.
Disclosure Scotland will inform the GDC if a GDC registrant is ‘listed’.