School authorities must ensure compliance with the requirements of the National Vetting Bureau (Children and Vulnerable Persons) Acts 2012 to 2016 (the Vetting Act) and with relevant Department circulars in relation to Garda vetting of school personnel and other persons who undertake relevant work or activities with children or vulnerable persons. The Vetting Act has placed statutory obligations on school authorities (other than in certain limited circumstances as set out in the Vetting Act) to obtain a vetting disclosure from the National Vetting Bureau prior to employing, contracting or placing a person to undertake relevant work or activities with children or vulnerable persons or prior to permitting a person to undertake such relevant work or activities on behalf of the school.
The Vetting Act also provides for the statutory retrospective vetting and periodic re-vetting of employees, volunteers and others who undertake relevant work or activities with children or vulnerable persons. It is a criminal offence for a school authority not to comply with its statutory vetting obligations under the Act. It is important to note that the National Vetting Bureau does not decide on the suitability of any person to work with children or vulnerable persons. Decisions on suitability for such work rest at all times with the relevant school authorities, and the results of vetting should form only one component of the recruitment decision. In that regard vetting should not, take the place of normal recruitment procedures, such as seeking and following up of references and ensuring that any unexplained gaps in employment records/curriculum vitae are satisfactorily accounted for. Whether a person is being considered for employment or other roles in the school, comprehensive procedures for the checking of the person’s suitability to work with children or vulnerable persons are an essential element of child protection practice.
Separate to the requirements of the Vetting Act, school authorities must also be cognisant of their civil law duty of care to their pupils and the need for prudent practice from a child protection perspective. In circumstances where the Vetting Act does not require a school authority to obtain a vetting disclosure, a school authority may from a prudent practice perspective nevertheless opt to seek a vetting disclosure in respect of a person prior to employing, contracting or placing that person to undertake relevant work or activities with children or vulnerable persons or prior to permitting that person to undertake such relevant work or activities on behalf of the school. School authorities must also ensure compliance with the Department’s requirements in relation to the provision of a child protection related statutory declaration and associated form of undertaking by all persons being appointed to teaching and non-teaching positions. Further information relating to vetting requirements can be found on the Department’s website www.education.ie