To not CRB check my friends

[julybutterfly]

It's DD's birthday in a few weeks. We're doing the whole hall hire, bouncy castle etc party. DD wanted a facepainter. the prices were ridiculous so I've asked a few artistic friends to do it. But I've had a couple of other parents ask me if my friends have been CRB checked! AIBU to think they're being OTT?

Maybe we should go further and have everyone have an ACRO certificate which goes deeper and wider than a CRB. Where do you stop with something like this?

Its gone mad.

Am I the only one who really wants on go on Snobbears jumpy castle

Unbelievable.
LIterally. Unbelievable.
Of course you are not being unreasonable.
Are you sure they are not winding you up?!
Their poor children if their parents won't let them association with anyone until twenty five forms have been filled in and a faceless bureacract confirms the 'computer says yes'

no..they dont need a CRB check..but they do need PLI..so hopefully there wont be any sue happy parents at the party if the novice face painters accidentally poke a child in the eye with a paintbrush

i wish people would get over crb checks, just because there is nothing on file to say theyve ever molested a child dousnt mean they wont, maybe they just havent been caught yet.

they are being completly ott, i would say no and neither have i. if they dont like it they dont have to attend. goodness imagine having parents like that!

How long will it be before a pregnant woman has to be CRB checked, or a father visiting the maternity ward? When I worked for Suffolk county council I was CRB checked, I answered the phone ffs!

asouthwoldmummy it was probebly more to do with the information you might have has access to a computer system, names and addresses etc..

Do you have to have a CRB check to run a toddler group these days?

erm, if this isn't a joke, then it's plain silly for another reason than what's already been said.

You CAN'T get anybody CRB checked just like that. You CAN'T get voluntarily CRB checked as a punter (not working in child-care). You have to be employed/ work as a volunteer by an organisation that requires it for appropriate reasons.

btw, for organisations that DO require CRB, only an enhanced CRB is meaningful for unsupervised access. These can take months to process.

Do these incredibly anxious parents hang around for playdates, then?

How utterly, utterly bizarre and alienating for them to think and talk like this.

I am Enhanced CRB checked. I visit Catering Managers in schools for 30 minutes at a time (if lucky!) Some schools ask for CRB, some photograph me, some ask me to sign in, but most don't do anything.

I always have the oversized piece of CRB paper with me but without a photo ID on it it is meaningless surely?

The intentions are good but it is a bit like a handgun ban - those prepared to commit an offence don't worry about the technicalities. And they probably don't operate in environments where a CRB check is necessary.

Good grief how ridiculous - I would be quite insulted as it implies you're a rubbish judge of character in terms of the friends you have.

Are these parents CRB checked themselves.....

They are utterly unreasonable. What is going to happen in a hall in full view of a load of other kids and adults anyway..

Hahahahahahaha!

That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

Okay, these are just off the top of my head so apologies that the list isn't comprehensive yet:

1. The friendly man in the newsagent's who always offers DS a sweet (the sweeties could be laced with a Child Tracking Device, you never know)

2. The lovely woman at the cafe who played pat-a-cake with DS (could have rubbed her hands in arsenic, you never know)

3. The kind bus driver who patiently waited while 3 yo DS bought ticket all by himself (could have dipped the bus tickets in Child Catching Goo, you never know)

, etc.

I had a CRB check to volunteer in school. The school sent for the application form but spelled my name incorrectly. Not a misspelling as in Thomson for Thompson, but they had added a vowel to the front, as for example Ms Marx would become Ms Omarx, which really looks like a completely different name. I corrected the spelling on the form, went through my proofs of identity with the school secretary and she sent it off. Of course, the certificateb came back for Ms Omarx. This really brought home to me the fact that the basic check is just a search in the criminal records database; it doesn't even check that the person exists.

Whistlersmum, when was that? enhanced CRB is now the norm for schools. This error would have been spotted under an ecrb search.

aegeansky, that was maybe 4 years ago. The school only required the enhanced CRB check for helping with swimming. They expected us to pay for our own ECRB, so I politely declined to help with swimming.

Standard CRB checks ended in October, they are all enhanced now.

"Standard CRB checks ended in October, they are all enhanced now."

You should tell the CRB to update their application pages to clarify this.

I am delighted to be able to be the first pedantic person to say: 'CRB checked' is a meaningless phrase. A registered sex offender can be CRB checked - and found to have previous convictions on their file. In this scenario your lovely friends would presumably be happy. Your delightful and grammatically vague friends surely mean, has their CRB check identified any previous convictions or cautions?

I'm a pro face painter and am CRB checks. When I started face painting, I did many of my friends' children birthday party for very little money, and nobody expected me to be CRB checked. As a professional you are a 'children's entertainer' as a job so you need CRB and eventually liability insurance in case something happens. For example, if a child gets a severe eye infection from contaminated equipment and the parents take you to court.

I would say that it is not necessary at all especially if the painters will be in the same room as everybody else.

Sorry I didn't realise there were so many replies! It wasn't at the top of the page for long and I didn't check it again after the first day. Am definitely not a journalist.

The few parents who asked me were NOT joking. I thought they were at first but they looked mightily offended when I laughed, which is when I realised they were serious

I did tell them I didn't think it was necessary as we'd all be in the hall and the kids wouldn't be unattended. It's interesting to know you need to be in an organisation to get someone checked though.

Did people really believe the rape paint story?! That made me chuckle

You friends are being ridiculous. This sort of over anxious parenting is so incredibly damaging. what sort of mindset do these people have ? Frightening.

On reflection, I think it is the parents who even think about the need for CRB checks who have the problem.

What sort of values are they passing on to their kids??

bonkers. That is all.

I wish the man who molested my sister had had a CRB. Oh wait, he was our step-father...Why do so many parents demand such stupid fucking checks when the harm is very likely coming from inside their own homes? I'm so sick of this culture of fear.