‘All teachers must have bureau checks’

The Association of Directors of Social Services has called for all teachers to undergo Criminal Records Bureau checks and be subject to the same CRB requirements as other professionals.
Andrew Webb, co-chair of the ADSS children and families committee, said that long-serving teachers would not have been CRB checked, as this was introduced in 2002.

Webb added that other groups working with children such as social workers and foster carers were required to have a fresh check every three years, but that this was not the case for teachers and the ADSS wanted this changed.

“It seems to us that the system would be safer if we checked up on people,” said Webb.

Earlier this month the Department for Education and Skills wrote to councils, reaffirming the status quo.

The ADSS’s position is different from that of the Association of Directors of Education and Children’s Services (Adecs), the organisation with which it plans to merge its children’s function.

Interim Adecs chair David Hawker said that having different staff groups subject to different requirements was a problem, but said the level of risk had to be balanced against the resources needed to clear the backlog of unchecked teachers.

All teachers are checked against List 99, the register of people banned from working in schools.