Greater Protection For Child Care Whistleblowers Announced

After a recent government concession, UK childcare workers will soon receive legal protection against acts of whistleblowing in the workplace. The scheme seeks to ensure that whistleblowing will not negatively impact upon a worker’s future career prospects.

The plan was sanctioned by ministers at the report stage and will soon be an official part of the Children and Social Work Bill following a proposal by Labour peer Lord Wills, which was a reaction against the existence of a “critical gap” in the current legislation that does not prevent workers seeking employment in child care from having their past whistleblowing actions revealed. Such a gap means that a form of blacklisting may occur against that worker as there is nothing stopping such information from being visible to a prospective new employer.

There has been support throughout the government for this amendment. Labour peer Baroness Wheeler emphasises how important this change to the bill is, especially as UK job seekers are not technically classed as workers under British law, and are thus not defended by existing whistleblowing legislation: “If an individual is labelled as a whistleblower, it can be difficult for them to get work because they can find themselves blacklisted, not through a formal centralised database but informally.”

Business minister Margot James has also commended the change in law: “I am pleased to have been able to work with Lord Wills and take action to extend employment protections for these workers […] This will put more emphasis on employers to follow best practice and provides greater protection for their workers.”

Lord James Younger, the Viscount of Leckie, voted in favour of changing the law so that workers will be protected. Explaining his part in the alteration of the bill, he said “I agree that those working with the most vulnerable children in society need to be able to report concerns about what is happening in their organization […] Those safeguards would apply to the whole of Great Britain in line with other employment legislation”.

However, Lord Younger, a Conservative Peer in the House of Lords, does not support making a further suggested alteration that would see the creation of a statutory code for whistleblowing in the child care section on grounds that such a change would be “premature” and would thus not be of any clear benefit.

This decision is not the only change to the Children and Social Work bill suggested in recent months with the intention of protecting workers. The House of Lords voted to delete Clause 29 of the bill in November this year, This will now allow ministers the power to maintain current social care legislation for a minimum period of three years.

The removal of the Clause was a notion brought forwards following complaints that the current strict social service rules restrict innovative new ideas being designed and prevent a better working environment for workers. It is argued that removing the Clause is vital as the industry evolves and old practices are no longer relevant, but critics of the alteration have pointed out that this may open the door for other changes that may remove vital areas of the bill that protect the existing rights that have been protecting children’s rights for years.

There was a negative verdict of the bill when the cross-party Commons education select committee reviewed it during the summer of 2016, but this did not stop the removal of the Clause from taking place on a margin of 245-213 vote by peers in the House of Lords. Despite its approval there was widespread acknowledgement that a convincing case for the change was not presented before the House.

A revision of whether the clause should be reinstated will now be referred to the House of Commons. This may provoke tensions between the two houses should the Commons approve.