27th February 2025
Does your parent group carry out activities and events for children? The Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme is becoming mandatory. This means those who are carrying out ‘regulated roles’ will need to join the PVG scheme before they can work with children as volunteers.
The law changes on 1 April 2025, however there will be a three-month grace period until 1 July.
Parent volunteer groups qualify for free PVG checks through Volunteer Scotland
If you need to sign up for PVG, or if you’re unsure and looking for further guidance, you can email Volunteer Scotland at disclosures@volunteerscotland.org.uk
You can find Disclosure Scotland’s latest update about the upcoming changes here
Guidance on regulated roles is in the process of being approved by the Scottish Parliament, and this should be published in mid-March. Meanwhile, the criteria for regulated roles can be found in the Disclosure Act.
A Regulated Role with children (see the Act Schedule and Explanatory Notes for full details):
Involves one or more of the listed activities as a necessary part of the role, where the carrying out of the activities gives the individual carrying them out, when doing anything permitted or required in connection with the carrying out of the activities, the opportunity to have contact with children.
– ‘contact’ means that is more than incidental to the carrying out of the activity and includes physical contact with children, written or verbal communication with children, and exercising power or influence over children.
- ‘Exercising power or influence’ means:
- assisting, facilitating, permitting or impeding progress towards a desirable objective or outcome for a particular child
- making decisions of an operational or strategic nature that could have an impact on a number of children
- persuading or putting pressure on a particular child to behave or act in a certain manner for the financial gain or personal gratification of a person other than the child
Listed Activities most likely relevant to parent groups are:
- Teaching, instructing or delivering training to children
- Holding power or influence over a child for the purpose of an activity in which the child is taking part or seeking to take part in
- Being in charge of or caring for children, other than acting as a foster carer
- Providing cultural, leisure, social or recreational activities for children
- Coaching children in relation to sports or physical activity