For PVG purposes, there are two options for self-employed staff to apply for PVG scheme membership. Self-employed dental staff undertaking regulated work can:
- be deemed to be ’employed’ by the dental practice. This means that a PVG application (Scheme Record or Scheme Record Update (Short Scheme Record) can be submitted for the self-employed staff member in the same way as direct employees of the practice.
- apply to the scheme individually by requesting a Confirmation of PVG scheme record (previously known as a Scheme Membership Statement).
Option 1 is preferable because this will ensure that the ’employing’ dental practice is recorded as an ‘interested party’. This will ensure that the practice has all known information for the applicant and will be notified by Disclosure Scotland in the event of the staff member being under consideration for listing or being listed (i.e. barred from undertaking a regulated role).
Employment agency staff are not PVG checked by the practice as the agency is their ’employer’, but practices should seek assurance from the agency that locum staff are appropriately disclosure checked and not barred from a regulated role.
Practices should check the eligibility of independent locum workers to perform a regulated role (e.g. Scheme Record for new PVG Scheme members or Scheme Record Update for existing PVG Scheme members), prior to them undertaking work. It is the responsibility of each individual locum worker to have a current PVG certificate for the regulated role they will undertake.
It is an offence to offer a regulated role to an individual barred from that type of work, and for an individual to agree to, or to undertake a regulated role when they are barred.