To think that bus drivers should be crb checked?

[itsallbollocks]

They are picking up school children and vulnerable people. Shouldn't they be checked?

I thought that they should be checked, but it turns out that would do fuck all to help

They are highly unlikely to have a conviction. If they are commenting about teenagers, they aren't pedophiles anyway (as they target pre-pubescent children). With the fact that the uniform should be a clue, the whole porn industry seems to be built around the 'slutty schoolgirl' image and think about the number of times you see female celebrities dressed up in school uniform on the front cover of FHM or whatever. I agree that it's sick and fucked up but legally I don't think you can do anything about it.

I don't think DBS checks are the answer here, but I do think these drivers need to be reported. You need to go to HR with specific examples of what you've heard (who said it, what was said, date and times etc).

They need to be told very clearly that it's not acceptable behaviour. It won't stop them thinking gross thoughts, but it will reinforce to them that it's not acceptable which is the first step.

This sounds like an old episode of "On the Buses".

Who's going to make a difference? I could report it to the school, and say Hey, some older male bus drivers make pervy comments and are arseholes, yeah and..... As others have said, they haven't actually done anything illegal. It just makes me uncomfortable, I thought that they should be checked, but it turns out that would do fuck all to help.

Clearly you can't be arsed to try to make a difference so I don't understand the point of this thread.

DBS checks won't help.
Complaining might. But you aren't prepared to do it. clearly you can't but that bothered about it.

People often write to schools to complain about the behaviour of school children on buses and the schools take that kind of thing quite seriously. There is no proof of that either but they still remind pupils about expected behaviour.

They are checked if they drive a school bus

As other posters have said there are avenues for raising the issue and ways of reporting individual cases and challenging workplace cultures. Please pursue those avenues if you want to effect change.

Not sure why the OP is getting such a hard time on this - the DBS wouldn't fix everything, but it would surely be a good basic check for this situation, how is that a bad or wrong idea? And actually, it might affect behaviour, because it'd make them all think for a moment that their jobs depended on some sort of assessment of their fitness to be in that position.

If it was a thread saying ' my OH is in trouble at work coz he got caught saying to colleagues that the girls on his bus he drives touch their breasts in front of him; he says it's harmless, and they all talk that way' - I don't think the answers would say, ' well he can't do any harm on a bus full of people', or 'i doubt anyone else can hear his comments, even if he says it on the bus, they're noisy places'! But both of those have been replies here.

I know of a vulnerable school girl whose ' boyfriend' was a married bus driver. This was a regular bus.

the DBS wouldn't fix everything, but it would surely be a good basic check for this situation,

DBS checks can only be carried out on people who undertake regulated activity.
The law was changed to stop overzealous schools and youth groups doing checks on everyone who crossed the threshhold.

When a DBS check is requested, the person authorising it signs a declaration that the individual being checked is in a role that requires it. They can be prosecuted if they lie.

School bus drivers who escort DCs alone are in that category. As are taxi drivers who are employed to provide school transport.
A local authority which doesn't require the transport company to provide those checks is negligent, imo.

Yanbu OP, this is a grey area in terms of safeguarding. Who is safeguarding your child whilst they are on council supplied transport to school? I have asked this question to our local councils School transport department and even they can't give me a definite answer. This was because our school bus was up to 40 minutes late, leaving some children alone waiting in isolated rural areas. I have thought about asking this myself on here and have no idea why you're being jumped on. I've got to leave for work now but will pick up this thread this afternoon.

Posties are checked and so are bus drivers and taxi drivers(where I live anyway) not that relevant really. . .

So you work with them?

Report them.

You need to report them. That would do more than and DRS check.

Why wouldn't you report them?

But a dbs check wouldnt find out tgat some people say shit like you have described. Chances are that these bus drivers you refer to would pass a dbs check. So you would still hear it.

Intheknickersoftime, I think it's very likely the councils responsibility, if they are offering the service for school children, even if they contract it out to a third party, but I'm not a legal expert. I don't think they're likely to tell you that tho when you ask!

They are highly unlikely to have a conviction. If they are commenting about teenagers, they aren't pedophiles anyway (as they target pre-pubescent children)
This is a rather odd view, it suggests that there is no protection for teenagers in law. The records will include behaviour around teenagers, as well as children. I wouldn't want to comment on whether we really can state categorically that no paedophile would ever make a lewd comment about a teenager, as the poster stated, but that also sounds a massive generalisation.

Will it really make any difference if I report it? I mean, look at some of the responses here, (the children aren't prepubescent, so they're not really proper paedophiles), these checks don't stop these comments any way.....etc. I will continue to loudly call them out on their comments when I hear them. But what will actually happen when I report them? They haven't actually done anything have they?

I do of course want to report them, but for what and to who? What do I say?

Will it really make any difference if I report it?

It at least stands a chance to make more difference than if you don't.

Go and ask your HR department to guide you through the relevant policies.

The bus company, the schools involved... seriously, its not hard. And you say what you said here - that you are disgusted at some of the comments being made.

what's the point of checking teachers or any one? It's not going to stop their weird, fucked up thoughts and comments. They might have a criminal history of abuse and sexual harassment, but never mind

and they may just make stupid comments. All a DBS check shows is that you have not been caught yet and they lead you into a false sense of seurity. It was all knee-jerk after the deaths of Holly W and Jessica C and I suspect has saved not one child from abuse or worse. But it's an easy tick-box exercise to make people feel like they are doing something. Employers like tick boxes when dealing with regulatory issues, anything else is too hard.

Interestingly I have worked in a library and I did not have to have a DBS check despite having lots of children and vulnerable adults around. However, I do need one to be a volunteer athletics coach working only with adults. In neither case am/was I ever with children or vulnerable adults on my own.

I think many parents are far too hung up on DBS checks. As someone further up said, it only picks up people who are on the police radar already. it gives parents a false sense of security - "Oh, Ms Smith has been DBS checked so she's absolutely fine". She may not be.

I'm definitely not one of the "paedophile around every corner" brigade but I think it's FAR more important to speak to your kids about appropriate and inappropriate behaviour and to give them the tools to speak out if someone is behaving in a way they don't like than it is to insist everyone and anyone is checked. People working on their own with vulnerable groups should be checked - but that's roles like carers, nursery staff, teachers. Not bloody bus drivers.

Of course you report them!! If I worked with people saying such things I would report them! You report them for speaking about young customers/service users in a sexual way.

You must challenge this- it isn't right at all.

I have had DBS checks done when I worked in retail, so I'm surprised they aren't done for bus drivers- I would have thought that they would be.

I think you should be very specific in your report. Give times and dates and specifics of what was said.