Help us to scrap ‘disqualification by association’: The government are consulting on changes to the childcare disqualification arrangements

Ever since ‘disqualification by association’ (DbA) hit the headlines about 18 months ago, we have been working to try and scrap the regulations that have had a significant and unnecessary impact on the partners of those with a criminal record.

Earlier this month, the Department for Education (DfE) published a consultation with proposals for change. The deadline for responses to the consultation is 1^st July 2016.

In the consultation, the DfE have put forward three options. We’re supporting option 1, which is to remove disqualification by association in schools and non-domestic registered settings.

We’re putting together a formal response to the consultation. We’re keen to build into this response as much evidence as we can to help support our recommendations.

We’ve put together a number of questions that we’re looking for answers to. We need your help!

1. Have you been personally affected by disqualification by association? If so, how? What was the outcome?
2. Which of the options in the Government consultation do you support, and why?
3. Do you think any of the options wouldn’t help? If so, why?
4. Would you be willing to be an anonymous case study? If so, please go into more detail about your story

Send your answers, and any other information you think is relevant, to casework@unlock.org.uk. We have a strict policy of confidentiality and will not share any of your personal details – anything we use will be anonymised.

To give us time to build in your evidence, we need to receive your thoughts and evidence by Sunday 26^th June at the latest, although the earlier the better.

Make sure you respond too!

The more responses that the government receive, the better. So, as well as sending us your comments, you can respond to the consultation directly. If you can, send us the details of what you submit.

Thank you for your support.

More information

1. You can read the Government consultation.
2. Find out more about our work on this issue on our policy page for disqualification by association.
3. For practical information on how DbA works, read the guidance on our information site.
4. Find out more about sending your details to us and what we do with it.
5. Discuss this consultation on our online forum.