Work has started on central register of people working with children

Children’s minister Margaret Hodge has confirmed that work on a
central register for people working with children is already
underway, writes Sally Gillen.

She told a child protection conference in London this week that her
department would have completed a scoping exercise on the register
by the time the Bichard inquiry reconvenes in six months’
time.

She said: “We are committed to the recommendation in the Bichard
report that there should be a central register but it is a really,
really difficult task that we are grappling with.”

Sir Michael Bichard’s report into the failures that led to Ian
Huntley’s appointment as a school caretaker, which was published
last week, recommended that all people working with children should
be registered, a condition of which could be a photocard.

It is not yet known how such a system, which could be an
independent body, would link with the vetting process carried out
by the Criminal Records Bureau.