Minister for education and young people Cathy Jamieson gave details of the Protection of Children (Scotland) Bill during a visit to the Molendinar Family Learning Centre in Glasgow last week. The Bill would create a List of Persons Unsuitable to Work with Children, to which employers would have to refer people if they had been sacked or moved as a result of unsuitable behaviour towards children, even if they had not been convicted of a criminal offence. The courts would refer someone if they were convicted of an offence which demonstrated their unsuitability to work with children.
The Bill makes it an offence for a person named on the list to continue working with children or to apply for a job to work with children.
Employers at nurseries, schools and organisations, such as Scouts and Guides, would have a legal duty to check the list via the Scottish Criminal Records Office before employing someone and it would be an offence to employ a person named on the list. Offending employers could face up to five years in prison.
Ms Jamieson said that the Bill aims to find the balance between protecting children and allowing them to enjoy childhood innocence. She said, 'This Bill will close a loophole which currently allows people who have lost their job, paid or voluntary, because of clear concerns over their conduct towards children, to then find other work where they continue to have contact with children.
'It is simply unacceptable that these people can have continued access to children, and the List of Persons Unsuitable to Work with Children will ensure this is no longer allowed to happen.'
Ms Jamieson added, 'The Bill complements the rigorous system for criminal record checks which already exists in Scotland and the other work under way to strengthen safeguards for children, including the Child Protection Review. This review will make recommendations later this year on how services for children who experience abuse or neglect can be further improved.'
A spokeswoman for the charity Children 1st welcomed the Bill. 'Safeguarding our children must be our highest priority,' she said.
'Courts and employers will be obliged to refer people to this list when children have been harmed even if a conviction has not been secured. We know how difficult it can be in cases where children are sexually abused, because there is rarely corroboration and because children find it hard to speak out.
'The civil liberties of adults are protected through the provision for appeals and in any situation where the rights of adults and the protection of children are in the balance, the rights of children must come first.'