Keeping children safe from community payback people....

[Pantone363]

Just received a letter from the school.

Some work will be carried out nearby to the school (cleaning/maintainance) and may be done by the community payback people. If it is done by the payback people then...

"for the safety of the children (from the payback people) any work will be carried out during the holidays"

AIBU to be a bit and a bit at the implication that they are all child snatching, peado criminals just waiting for a chance to steal our kids?

[nohalfmeasures]

EduCated I didn't use the word "pass".
What I meant was that they won't have the resources or the time to CRB check, plus it could throw up all sorts of headaches for them, so it's easier just to have them doing the work when the children are on holiday.

[EduCated]

Sorry, that wasn't to you, it was to wannabe!

[ReallyTired]

If there were loads of people doing community payback during school hours then the kids would pester them with questions. There is a certain level of dignity involved as well. The children might know some of the people doing community service.

"There are factories in the next town to me that are on the same road as a school. Even employees on the night shift need enhanced CRBs. "

That is breaking the law. It sounds like the factory wants to find out if their employees have any criminal history whatsoever. There is no need for a factory employer to know about spent convictions or cautions.

I think some people get a bit hysterial about CRB checks. Most people doing community payback aren't usually dangerous.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Trust MN to get hung up on singular words.

The term "pass a CRB check" is widely used. If you have a CRB check done and it flags up a conviction which would prevent you working with children or vulnerable adults, or in the vicinity of where they may be, then I think its fair to say you have not passed that check.

[AmberLeaf]

I think whoever wrote that letter did so from a prejudice mindset.

There was no need at all to tell parents anything.

[CloudsAndTrees]

It may be that some parents have expressed concern already and you just haven't heard about it, and that's why the school has sent out a letter to all parents.

Like it or not, there are likely to be parents that are concerned about it, so the school is doing the right thing by reassuring them.

[DeWe]

It would say exactly the same if they were a standard building company, or any group of adults round schools that haven't been CRB checked.

We had almost the same word for word when the school reception was being done, and that was a building company that specialises in school work.

[AmberLeaf]

Like it or not, there are likely to be parents that are concerned about it, so the school is doing the right thing by reassuring them

The school shouldn't pander to idiots.

A bunch of petty criminals working while supervised is no danger.

[EduCated]

'Payback people (odd term that I have never heard before) wont be able to pass a CRB check. That could be for a million reasons which dont always mean they are a danger to children.

But, no CRB means they cannot be around children or vulnerable adults.'

I'm not getting hung up on a singular word. You explained it that it would be because none of them could pass a CRB, which is wrong. Presumably anyone with a record that involves crimes which make them unsuitable to be near children wouldn't be on community payback anyway.

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

Not necessarily.

A conviction for assault ten years ago would prevent them from working with children.

They might be on payback now for graffiti.

[Minifingers]

These people won't be working 'with' children, any more than the parents who spend time on the school premises collecting or dropping off their kids. If you can justify crb checking people working outside a school you can damn well justify crb checking all parents who come into the school grounds daily.

[LaGuardia]

More MN hysteria.

[CloudsAndTrees]

No, a school shouldn't pander to idiots. But they should respond to concerns raised by parents, whether their concerns are valid or not.

And to be fair, I don't think it's that terrible for a parent to not want their 4 or 5 year old to be around criminals who are serving their punishment and who don't want to be there.

That said, the people doing community service have a great reputation at the school I work in. They have done loads to our playground and outside areas, they have done an excellent job, and the school hasn't had to pay a penny!

[wannabedomesticgoddess]

I didnt say I agreed with it.

[AnyFucker]

wtf ?

My eyebrows would be raised to high heaven if I got a letter from school of this nature

There are a team of "community paybackers" clearing my road of weeds and fixing some other stuff at the moment, I live round the corner from my kid's school and lots of kids walk by twice a day

so fucking what

[LadyBeagleEyes]

I think we should just lock up every petty criminal and throw away the keys TBH.
Especially during school holidays..
They may be, like, shop lifters, or benefit cheats, .
Keep them away from our children.

[MammaTJ]

They have been working at my DCs school.

They only go there when there are no children around. There has been an occasion when the school had to stop them coming at their usual time because they wanted to hold an event that children would attend.

[Nerfmother]

It's called a DBS check now. It's enhanced of you will be working on a caring or supervisory capacity with children, unsupervised. I don't think that you need one on order to do community service

[EduCated]

But anyway, the point I was vaguely trying to make is its ridiculous. They're not even in the school, just near it, and are presumably to be supervised a d monitored anyway!

[NKffffffffabeee2d7X127640abcce]

I work in the criminal justice system. Community payback (it's the politicians who come up with the terminology btw) is a low level community sentence, therefore not used for dangerous or violent offences. It's likely to be shoplifters, fine defaulters, dippers, etc. Individuals, settings and group composition are risk assessed, and groups are supervised at all times.

If OP is based in London, CP is no longer run by Probation but outsourced to a private agency (Serco) and under the cover of MN anonymity I can say that I would be rather more concerned about the rigour of risk assessment and supervision than in areas where it's done by the professionals. (Though I'm guessing even Serco would manage not to place a paedophile on CP at a school - get real folks). Just one more issue we can thank this current government for. But I digress...

Part of the purpose of CP is to enable offenders to make some level of restitution to society for the damage caused by their criminal behaviour. The more useful the activity can be to benefit the wider community, the better in my view. I have worked in this field before and had to source activities and venues, and cleaning and repair work on school grounds sounds like a great one to me. Especially as the majority of CP activity takes place at weekends.

[Nehru]

agree
LOl at menacing unpaid work people.

they are people like your brother, your boss you cousin who got pissed and fought someone. Or didnt pay a fine or perhaps were caught with drugs