Making Decisions about Who Should Be Barred from Working with Adults in Vulnerable Situations: The Need for Social Work Understanding

This article reports on an element of recently completed research that aimed to explore factors leading to placement on the Protection of Vulnerable Adults (POVA) List-a barring list unique to England and Wales. A multiple methods approach was adopted, involving in-depth quantitative analysis of POVA referral records and a set of discussion groups and interviews investigating how decisions were being made. This article focuses on this latter element, setting out and discussing the overall schema for decision making resulting from the analysis, which identified an interplay between emotional and moral responses to the individual referred and evidence about the alleged misconduct. The importance of involving all stakeholders in the development of such a decision-making system is raised through the research and the implications for social workers are explored.