Update from Alexis Cheshire

As promised last week I would like to give you all an update on the latest developments regarding disclosure checking and Census 2015.

Disclosure checks in England and Wales
The Vetting Team have started sending individual emails to each District/County/Area Commissioners with details of adults recorded on Compass who don’t have a current criminal record check recorded against their membership record. This could be because their DBS check has expired; they have never completed one for Scouting or have not had continuous service (i.e. a break in service).

We have processed the initial disclosure requests entered into Compass, and applicant’s details are now ready in the Atlantic Data (Disclosure) system so that you can locally complete the rest of the disclosure application. Please use Atlantic Data to complete your disclosures.

Please remember that disclosure applications can now be completed by Assistant Section Leaders, Section Leaders, Assistant Group Scout Leaders, Group Scout Leaders, Group Administrators and District Appointment Secretaries, Commissioners and Assistant Commissioners with a full role recorded on Compass and have registered on Compass. To access the disclosure system you require log in details. If you haven’t received your registration email or have mislaid and require them to be resent, please contact the team on disclosures@scouts.org.uk or call 020 8498 5494 or 020 8433 7186. The Vetting Team can also assist if you are unable to locate applicant in the system, or the applicant has left Scouting and the system needs updating.

Once the disclosure process is completed, the local Appointments Secretary will be notified of the check. There is no change to the current adverse disclosure process.

Unfortunately there is currently no ability to check adults not currently on the Compass system. A method is currently being designed and tested and will be operational as soon as possible. We will keep you updated and notify Commissioners and Appointment Secretaries when this becomes available. Until then, please follow existing protocols and ensure that those who have not been disclosure checked do not work unsupervised with young people.

Disclosure checks are a very important part of our procedures which is why we have prioritised this service to you. We also appreciate that although this process is not ideal and gives you additional tasks, it will help Scouting continue operating safely.

Disclosure checks in Scotland and Northern Ireland
Members in Scotland and Northern Ireland should use the normal disclosure application process, sending the paper forms to the Vetting Team at Gilwell Park when completed and the team will work to ensure the rest of your process can continue as before, even while Compass is down.

Census 2015
As you will know, with Compass down for a number of weeks we will be implementing the previous census system to complete the 2015 census. We are currently preparing and testing the system. Posted letters will arrive next week with Group and District login details to District Commissioners and District Secretaries, and County login details to County Commissioners and County Secretaries.

15 February 2015 is the deadline for census (the day you take count of your current members). You will have a month to submit this information into the system giving time for Counties/Area/Regions to validate and approve the data. The deadline for Counties to approve their Census data is 23 March 2015.

We will be closing the Youth Data Upload service at 10am on Monday 16 February so that we can get a clean snapshot of the data for pre-populating the Census 2015 website. Any uploads submitted after this time will not be included in the Census 2015 return.

Security of youth data
A number of you have raised some concerns regarding the safety and security of Youth data within Compass. I would like to reassure you that this data is safe and is well-protected.
After identifying the potential security vulnerabilities within the Compass website, we took the decision to remove access to the system. These vulnerabilities only existed within the Compass website and not in the Youth Data Upload service or the actual database that holds the data. Both Youth Upload and Database services have been independently security tested and there are no known vulnerabilities. The database itself is fully encrypted and access to the data is strictly controlled. Only certain TSA staff members using the network at HQ have access to view or amend this data, and the data supplied via the youth upload process goes through a strict validation stage and is only imported into the database once it has met certain criteria. As such, all data that currently resides within the Compass Database is secure and continues to be so. We will only restore member access to the Compass website when we know that any and all potential vulnerabilities have been removed and we have had it re-tested by industry security experts to prove so.

As soon as I have more information to share regarding the ability to add new adults into the database so that DBS checks can be initiated, I will be in touch again.

Thank you again for your messages of support and offers of help, they really are appreciated.

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