The greatest responsibility in human services is to protect the safety and well-being of your clients and employees that are entrusted to your organization. Difficult exposures that must be addressed and diligently targeted is the prevention of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and neglect of children, elderly and individuals with disabilities, by caregivers, volunteers and unauthorized personnel on premises. The consequences of such misconduct or malicious acts can be devastating to the victim, victims’ families and costly to your organization.

“Today nearly 35 million adults come into contact with more than 70 million children in educational institutions, day care, foster care, youth organizations, social service agencies’ medical facilities, recreation centers, religious based programs, and juvenile detention, and law enforcement facilities.” – Janet Reno, Attorney General (2002)

Background Screening

Establishing a comprehensive system for the selection process of all employees and volunteers is most crucial. The safest policy is to screen ALL individuals at the most stringent level. The hiring process to screen and select, employees and volunteers has several goals:

• To hire competent staff
• To screen out individuals who might represent a risk to the clients safety

“Each week, Child Protective Services throughout the United Sates receive more than 50,000 reports of suspected child abuse or neglect. In 2002 2.6 million reports concerning the welfare of approximately 4.5 million children were made.” –National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect (2002)

It is your responsibility to assure that you are in compliance with local and state laws.

• Meet all statutory requirements and regulations pertaining to preventing and reporting abuse and neglect. When reporting an abuse or neglect incident, be sure the following is understood:

• Definition of “abuse” and “neglect”, which varies from state to state.
• Each state has varying reporting requirements for caretaker professionals.
• Most states require reporting of incidents, where there is “reason to believe” a person has been abused or neglected and require reporting within 48 hours of the incident.
• All states provide some type of immunity for filing a report and if the allocation cannot be proven, the indicated has the right to sue the reporter.

• Develop and implement formal recorded written policies and procedures regarding abuse. Include the following as standard practices and procedures (See Table #1 for Recommended Screening Criteria):

TABLE #1
Recommended Screening Requirements for Paid, Primary, and Secondary Workers

*WARNING: Table #1’s sample screening requirements are suggestions only. Job descriptions and positions vary from place to place, so it is impossible for the authors to accurately categorize workers at your organization. Each user of this product is responsible for developing appropriate screening and safety policies. Please carefully customize this list to reflect the responsibilities and situations of workers in your organization. Consult legal counsel before implementation.

• Adopt clear written policies prohibiting unauthorized conduct.
• Adopt supervision guidelines.
• Create confidentiality policies to prevent disclosure regarding hiring or disciplinary practices.
• Develop and maintain all job descriptions on an annual basis.
• Notify guardians of activities, behavior and practices that are unacceptable.
• Establish procedures of notification to guardians regarding the departure of staff.

• Develop and initiate an abuse prevention training program for all staff members.

• Develop and enforce accountability guidelines for re-employment of accused abusers.

It is far better to pay for Prevention than to pay for Negligence.

“In 2000, findings from the National Elder Abuse Study, based on figures from 50 states, the total number of reports of elder/vulnerable adult abuse received was 472,813. It is difficult to say how many older and vulnerable Americans are abused, neglected, or exploited, in large part because surveillance is limited and the problem remains greatly hidden.” – National Center on Elder Abuse (2000)

Philadelphia Insurance Companies has created an alliance with IntelliCorp Records, Inc. IntelliCorp offers a wide range of innovative pre-employment verification and screening services, including criminal background checks, previous employment and education references, MVRs and more. Log onto http://www.losscontrol.com to find out more information.

Additional resources include:

Guidelines for the Screening of Persons Working with Children and Vulnerable Adults

National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect:

Stepping Stones to Caring for our Children, National Health & Safety Performance Standards: Guideline for Out of Home Children Care Programs

US Department of Health and Human Services, Children’s Bureau

Staffing Screening Tool Kit, Nonprofit Risk Management Center: www.nonprofitrisk.org

For additional value-added safety information, please log on to our loss control website and register at: www.losscontrol.com

Mark A. Konchan, Assistant Vice President
Loss Control Department
Phone: 610-538-2967
E-Mail: mkonchan@phlyins.com

IMPORTANT NOTICE - The information and suggestions presented by Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company in this E-Brochure is for your consideration in your loss prevention efforts. They are not intended to be complete or definitive in identifying all hazards associated with your business, preventing workplace accidents, or complying with any safety related, or other, laws or regulations. You are encouraged to alter them to fit the specific hazards of your business and to have your legal counsel review all of your plans and company policies.