The 84-year-old woman's story in UNT about how she was raped by a male employee from the municipal home care service has caused dismay.
Despite the woman's early warning that the man was intrusive, he was allowed to continue working. Moreover, the municipality failed to note that the reason for his dismissal from previous home care jobs was allegations of sexual assault.
The man has been dismissed by the municipality, according to UNT. He denies the crime and the preliminary investigation into the rape has been dropped due to lack of evidence.
Request for Extract
After the incident, Uppsala Municipality has begun requesting extracts from the criminal records register for new hires.
Now we have introduced these requirements, so now you cannot work in our welfare services unless you provide an extract from your criminal record, says Tobias Smedberg (V), chairman of the elderly committee in Uppsala Municipality, in SR's P1 Morning.
But many municipalities are unsure of what they are allowed to check during employment. In a survey conducted by P4 last autumn, more than half of the country's 290 municipalities replied that they do not request any extracts from the police's criminal records register when hiring staff for home care services.
Increased Control
The government wants to change this. By summer, a law is expected to clarify that municipalities will be allowed to conduct checks in criminal records, including for employment in areas such as home care or personal assistance.
The checks will not only be allowed in the criminal records register but also in the suspicion register, but only if charges have been brought.
It has been controversial before. I think it's completely obvious that you must be able to make those kinds of checks on people. This issue highlights the need to incorporate security thinking into that kind of recruitment, says Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson (M).
