Criminal checks on independent children’s home staff are dogged by unecessary bureaucracy and long delays, the Independent Children’s Homes Association has said.
The ICHA has written to the government calling for a review of the checking process. It cited delays of up to 4 months in approving staff.
In a letter to junior children’s minister Baroness Morgan of Drefelin, ICHA’s chair Roy Williamson said that it was “not in the public interest” for child care workers to have to get a seperate CRB check for every new job.
He suggested that workers’ CRB records could be transferred between jobs instead where the role and conditions were the same.
“The time taken to secure vetting undermines the smooth working of the jobs market and the stability that all agree is a cornerstone for the care of looked-after children,” he said.
Williamson added that the process did little to benefit workers or children while “filling the coffers of the company that is responsible for the vetting.”
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Independent Children’s Homes Association
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