MP presses Clarke on Haringey staff

Education secretary Charles Clarke has been asked to disclose
whether he has had talks with Haringey social services about
employing people with criminal records.

The call, from Conservative shadow minister for children Tim
Loughton, followed the revelation that the London council had used
an agency worker convicted of sexually abusing children to drive a
minibus for children with learning difficulties in 2002.

Dennis Bell had not been vetted by the agency. His past was
discovered only after he was stopped by police for driving
offences.

In a statement, the council said it now insisted that agencies
provided documentary evidence that temporary staff had been checked
by the Criminal Records Bureau.

It added that a full investigation had been carried out by the
police, children’s charity NSPCC and social services, which
concluded that Bell had not abused anyone in Haringey.