Social worker demands compensation over criminal check delay

A Coventry social worker is demanding nearly £1,500 in
compensation from the Criminal Records Bureau after she lost three
weeks’ wages due to delays in her police checks being
processed, writes Derren Hayes.

Philomena Brown was forced to wait 14 weeks for her enhanced
disclosure to come through meaning she was left with a three-week
gap between leaving her job with Coventry council and starting at
the Barnardo’s Breakaway Project.

Her local Unison office has written to the CRB’s
complaints department asking for a speedy settlement to her
claim.

John Young, a steward at Unison’s Coventry branch, said:
“This person was in limbo for 3 weeks, not being able to start her
new job, and not knowing what’s going on. It was very
stressful for her and we’ve pointed out the error of their
ways.”

To comply with National Care Standards Commission regulations,
all staff working with children and vulnerable people need police
checks to be carried out by the CRB, which should take no longer
than 3 weeks.

The home office said any compensation claim based on proven
errors on the CRB‘s behalf would be taken “very seriously”,
and dealt with on a case by case basis.