Make kitsch the enemy: the 'monstrous carbuncle' of the UK vetting and barring scheme (VBS)

1. Dave Wastell (Nottingham University, UK) Sue White (Birmingham University, UK) Make kitsch the enemy: the 'monstrous carbuncle' of the UK vetting and barring scheme (VBS)

2. POLICY CONTEXT – THE SOHAM MURDERS Huntley was a caretaker at adjacent school – previous history in other parts of the country of sexual abuse involving young girls, though no convictions. Failure to pass this information on meant he passed the police check in Cambridgeshire. IS FAILURE - MORAL PANIC!!!

3. The Policy Response • Bichard Enquiry set up in Dec 2003 • Recommended central body to vet all wishing to work with children or vulnerable adults. • The VBS: • aims to protect children and vulnerable adults by ensuring that people who are judged to present a risk of harm are not allowed to work with them • Decisions will be made: • by an independent body of experts and follow a clear and structured judgement process, assessing the risk of future harm based on the information that is known about the individual

4. Policital kitsch – the beautiful lie

5. Another IS failure! • Work began setting up the VBS in Oct 2009 • Met with massive concerns • 11 million adults would come within its tentacles • Even minor contact with children covered, e.g. school lifts • Significant fee • Soft as well as hard data would be gathered, even newspaper reports • School leaders were worried it would discourage volunteers • Civil liberties groups protested, RCN called for judicial review • Teresa May (coalition Home Sec.) suspended implementation in June 2010, describing the VBS as draconian: • “You were assumed to be guilty until you were proven innocent”.

6. Under the (epistemological) bonnet • Quoting from the official Guidance: “Referral information is received from employers re. internal disciplinary procedures. Conclusions reached are reviewed to establish, on a balance of probability, the facts....” • Having assembled the “facts”, a Structured Judgement Process is then applied focusing on “risk factors linked to future harm”: • e.g. “Harm-Related Interests/Intrinsic Drives “, defined as behaviour “driven by or motivated out of a specific interest in, and/or fantasy about, harmful behaviour”. • How were the case-workers, at their desks, to identify such an “intrinsic drive”? • “Within this context, consider how far the case material reflects the presence of the following risk factors: e.g. Personal gratification derived from thoughts/acts of violence or violent fantasy, or from being in control over others”. • THEY CANNOT BE SERIOUS- BUT THEY WERE!!!

7. Entering the fray! • Hypothetical case: • a 16 year old youth, fractured family background, involved in a fight with another boy after a night on the town. Police are called, cautioned; the other boy was 15, a violent assault against a “minor” is now on his record. Over the next few years, there are other minor non-violent crimes as he struggles with drug use, but finally he settles down determined to make something of himself. He volunteers to work in a third sector young person’s service, aiming to train to be social worker, and is vetted. RESULT?? • Other anomalies: • Car park attendants covered, peripatetic music teachers not! • Internet outwith the Scheme, chat rooms etc. • Overseas workers • Unintended consequences – complacency • Authors visiting schools would have to be vetted • No attempt made to assess reliability, false positive rate…

8. Would it work? • Humberto's montrous musings: • I did not plan to marry Charlotte in order to eliminate her in some vulgar, gruesome and dangerous manner... Other visions of venery presented themselves to me swaying and smiling. I saw myself administering a powerful sleeping potion to both mother and daughter so as to fondle the latter through the night with perfect impunity (Nabokov, Lolita) • In conclusion: • The real motives of Scheme were less about protecting children than protecting government from the lynch-mob of public outrage. • Its purpose was like that of all political kitsch, to soothe, to pacify, to make people feel secure.

9. Rocking the boat • Why was the VBS neglected by IS scholars – it's an IS and a very consequential one • Biases: technology, innovation, private sector • Managing as designing – opportunity knocks for IS • Evidence-based design, the IS knowledge base is formidable • More design science, less kitsch science! Ease of use User satisfaction