News

• Bureau orders investigation after criminal checks failure

The deaths of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and the resulting charges for college caretaker Ian Huntley and teaching assistant Maxine Carr prompted the government to insist that all checks must be done before staff can start work in schools.

Previously ministers had allowed teachers to be employed for three months without a check being carried out.

The Criminal Records Bureau is tackling a backlog of teacher checks totalling 12,000, which has to be cleared before the school term begins next Wednesday (4 September). Many headteachers are contemplating a delay in the start of the new term while checks are done.

Extra staff were taken on to cope with the pressure, working round-the-clock to process checks.

But for local authorities, charities and care homes waiting for the outcome of checks on their staff it is yet another possible reason for delay they could do without. New providers and staff starting a new job have to wait for the all-clear from the CRB before they can begin working.

Earlier this month a former Coventry council social worker demanded £1,500 in compensation from the CRB claiming she lost three weeks' wages waiting for her check to be done before she could start a new job with Barnardo's.

The problems are acute for many new employees and organisations applying for clearance.

Sheila Scott, chief executive of the National Care Homes Association, said one check the association requested was still outstanding after 18 weeks.

The association submits applications to the CRB on behalf of its members.

She said 32 checks had been outstanding for 12 weeks and 90 for nine weeks.

"The teachers may have been dealt with, but the number in the care sector will continue to increase," she said.

Scott said the CRB's target of three weeks to process 'enhanced disclosures' (for people with regular direct contact with vulnerable people) was always misleading anyway because the forms had to be handled by the association before and after the CRB had processed it, adding another week to the process.

"I don't think there are many employees who want to wait four weeks to take on a job," she said.

Barnardo's are also experiencing difficulties, although a spokesperson was not aware of the situation worsening in recent weeks.

National statistics were unavailable, but she said in the midlands region the charity was waiting an average of eight weeks for a check to be done, while 12 weeks was the longest time taken.

A spokesperson for the home office, which is responsible for the CRB, said social care checks were unaffected by the concentration on the education sector because of the extra staff employed.

"All disclosure applications continue to be processed in the same way alongside the work on the outstanding teacher applications," he said.

David Wright, social services director in Norfolk, who is leading the Association of Directors of Social Services' response to the CRB delays, said the CRB was now confident backlogs would be cleared by November.

He has been assured by the CRB's new director John O'Brien that the delays would be reduced quickly. The CRB has asked Wright to prioritise applications in terms of client group, and Wright believes people who will work closely with children should be checked first.

"It is about managing risk and quite clearly some groups are at greater risk than others," he said.

Senior managers should not be a priority, he said, because they have far less contact with children than people who visit children in their own homes.

The CRB had admitted that the application forms are too complicated, he said, and it was committed to simplifying them and producing guidance. But the social care sector had a responsibility to ensure the forms were completed accurately to avoid rejection on the basis that insufficient information was supplied.

Wright believes a combination of factors led the CRB to its current plight: "It either estimated it (the workload) incorrectly, or it inadequately resourced it, or it has had problems applying the new system."

Whatever the reasons for the crisis at the CRB, the impact is being felt in social care, where staff recruitment is already a serious problem. Perhaps headteachers should consider themselves fortunate that politicians have decided their needs are the current priority.

CRB targets:

Basic and standard disclosures: 95 per cent within one week

Enhanced disclosure: 90 per cent within three weeks

Response to dispute over contents of disclosure: 95 per cent within one week