The Child Protection Act lays down restrictions on who may not work with children. This restriction has to ensure that persons who have been convicted or sentenced to compulsory treatment on the basis of the offences referred to in § 20 of this Act are not allowed to work in professions involving children.
Read more about the restriction on working with children at just.ee/kontrollitausta.
Who is a person working with children?
- A person who comes into direct contact with a child at work or in a professional activity.
- A person in direct contact with a child in voluntary activities, substitute service, provision of employment services or as an intern.
- A person who comes into direct contact with children due to their job description or the nature of their work in other institutions, not merely those meant for children: for example, a hospital social worker, an employee of a youth work agency or youth camp.
The restriction does not apply to people who, among other things, serve children (salesmen, bus drivers, etc.) while performing their duties.
Depending on the offence, the restriction on working with children can be either for life or temporary until the end of the sentence. The grounds for entering a sentence in the archives of the register are set out in § 24 of the Criminal Records Database Act.
The purpose of the controls on the restriction on working with children is to protect children from abuse in nurseries, schools, gyms, leisure activities, camps, contact with child protection workers, and other such places.
To ensure a restriction on working with children, an organisation working with children must:
- make sure that the person who wants to be employed has not been punished for the crimes specified in § 20 of the Child Protection Act or has been subjected to compulsory treatment (both in Estonia and in other countries);
- inspect, on the same basis, all employees who were hired before the introduction of this restriction, i.e. before 2007.
- By law, regular inspections must be carried out at least once a year from 1 January 2023.
- The obligation to carry out the check lies with the person who allows them to work with children or the person granting the licence to do so, whereas the obligation to carry out regular checks lies with the employer or another person who allows working with children, e.g. traineeship provider, volunteer coordinator, etc.
- It is recommended that the employer perform a background check every six (6) months for people who are already working to make sure that no additional penalties have been added during the employment period.
For child care institutions (and parents), the making of queries is free of charge.
How does an organisation working with children get information about a person?
You need to know the person’s personal identification code to make a query on the website at www.e-toimik.ee. The natural person representing the institution can make a request for several persons in turn. In order to make a query in the e-File, the natural person must log in and then indicate the authority on whose behalf the query is being made by giving the reason for the query (selecting the appropriate answer from the drop-down menu). The answer to the query will be displayed immediately in the same environment. The query is to all entitled persons*, i.e. organisations working with children, licence issuers, and legal representatives of children. The child care institution can also make a free query about a person who has been working there for a long time. It is also possible to make free re-queries per person.
In order to make a query by email [email protected], it is necessary to know the person’s given name and surname and personal identification code. In order to obtain the information, the representative of the child care institution sends a digitally signed application to [email protected], stating that the query is for information on a person working with children and indicating subsections 20 (1)–(2) of the Child Protection Act as the basis for issuing the data. If a person enters the public service, the background inspection shall be additionally based on clauses 15 1)–3) of the Civil Service Act. In this case, the person’s background will be inspected against the restrictions under both the Child Protection Act and the Civil Service Act. The child care institution can also make a query about several persons at once, for example, by presenting their details in a table. The query will be answered within two (2) working days. The response time may be longer if the query is made for more than one (1) person. The query is free of charge for child care institutions. The child care institution can also make a free query about a person who has been working there for a long time. It is also possible to make free re-queries per person.
Automatically via the X-tee service. The owners of databases can use the e-File X-tee service LasteKaitseParing and make queries automatically either individually or as mass queries. In order to use the service, you must first submit an application by email to [email protected] to open the service in the X-tee development environment and a reasoned application by the head of the institution/company upon completion of the software developments.
What happens if the person under inspection has lived or worked in another country?
If the person applying for a job has lived or worked in another EU country, you should check the criminal record of that country. In this case, the application through [email protected] shall be supplemented by the following information:
- country or countries where the person has lived or worked;
- country of birth;
- city of birth;
- citizenship;
- type of document;
- number of document;
- previous given name(s);
- previous surname(s);
- father’s first name(s).
As the speed of a request varies from country to country, you should allow up to 10 (ten) working days for a response.
What can the parent do?
If a parent wants to check the background of a nanny or other person dealing with the child, i.e. if the parent allows working with the child, they can make a request for a restriction on working with the child by logging in to the website of e-toimik.ee with an ID-card, Smart-ID or Mobile-ID. A parent can also submit a query to the Criminal Records Database by email. To do this, the parent fills in a short application form, which is available on the www.rik.ee/et/karistusregister page, and sends an email to [email protected].
For more information on the query, please send an email to [email protected] and call 663-6359 (weekdays 10.00–14.00).