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

If you're hearing it in the depot, report it to whoever is the manager there. Those sort of comments are inappropriate for any workplace.

Do you have any suspicion that they're behaving like this towards actual school children? If so I'd report it to the school as well.

Ime the LA take it very seriously if you complain about school bus drivers.

Reporting it is going to do far more than a dbs check would do.

So, you want DBS checks performed to weed out people who make off colour and/or inappropriate comments (not what they are designed to do, but still) but don't report the comments or behaviour yourself.

Can't you see where the problem might lie?

Dbs checks have their place and do help to safeguard children. It isn't necessarily a simple check on convictions, dependant on the level required for the role. Dbs checks aren't the only way to safeguard children though and we all have a responsibility to report behaviour that we are concerned about. It angers me when children are sexualised and other people normalise the behaviour. Quite simply, normalising these attitudes contribute to perpetrators thinking they can continue. After that rant, in this case I would be concerned about any sexualised comments made about children by a person who is working with them. If I hear someone talking in this manner I will challenge them, if it were someone who worked with children then I would be passing it on.

I've been at work this morning, and the guy saw me, waited til I was alone, and then said Sorry if he gave me the wrong idea yesterday, and that he's not really like that, and wouldn't agree with that sort of thing at all. Hmmmmm. He talks a lot of bs any way, and I don't think anyone would give him a glance, let alone look at him whilst they touched themselves. At least that I made it clear that talking about school children like that is not ok. I will report any future comments properly with times and dates, but he'll more than likely deny everything.

The police where I live will not DBS people who do not meet certain criteria. Bus drivers do not come under this.

Not really with DBS because as someone else said DBS only shows who has been caught but I think regularly drug tested which I think they may be anyway

The police where I live will not DBS people who do not meet certain criteria.

The police don't carry out DBS checks.

The law sets out what constitutes a 'restricted activity' and the person who is counter-signing the application to request the DBS check has to declare that the individual being checked has one of those roles. If they lie, they can be prosecuted.

I've just managed to come back to this and read the post properly. There's a couple of things I want to ask about. Don't worry if you don't want to say. If your school is a local authority one go to the department at the council responsible for school transport and report this awful culture. If not I would suggest speaking to the school head if it's a private school. I am assuming that you work for the company that supplies the buses. I think your 100% correct to tackle this and to do it sooner rather than later. You have evidence, you've heard their disgusting comments. If my 14 year old DD was having to put up with that I would be distraught for her. And for anyone who disbelieves that this shit goes on, there were two regular drivers who used to drive our bus to school. One used to grope my arse every morning. He was quite elderly. Another befriended a few of us and invited us to his house. I didn't go but I don't have to spell out what happened. It is a grey area, if caretakers, TAs, dinner ladies, secretaries need dbs and child protection training then bus drivers should too. The safeguarding on buses is nowhere near rigourous enough. Don't let this drop. You've had some utterly shite responses on here.

It's DBS now not CRB, has been for years! I don't understand why everyone thinks DBS's are great, he has a DBS so must be fine. No, DBS only show the perverts/criminals who have actually been CAUGHT!

My thoughts on the DBS exactly .

Knew of a man who adopted a son many years ago who had been his foster carer originally . Turns out he was a profilic paedophile and got 28 years , at aged 62, such was he still a risk to children . He had remained uncaught between his first crime in the 1970s to his last in the 2000s . CRB/DBS checked too , It means nothing.

DBS aside there is clearly a pretty nasty culture within this company. How can children be protected from that unless there is a system in place to check criminal records and educate via child protection training. Of course it means something! There should be a safeguardimg policy at every bus company that transports children to school.

OP well done for standing up to him about it. It's by confronting it that you change the sort of culture that makes it acceptable. If it continues and you report, it may not make an immediate difference. If they deny and it becomes one persons word against another thing. But it sets the groundwork for future action and creates a bit more pressure to stop it. Sometimes it take time and lots of little actions to tip those with power into action.

You're doing well by challenging these opinions when you hear them; that's a lot more than some people would do! You're showing them that this form of 'banter' (horrible word) isn't acceptable.
I agree with PP about reporting your concerns to management/HR.

If you've heard these sorts of comments made by bus drivers while they're at work, you need to complain to the bus operator. They will deal with it in whatever way they deal with any other complaint about rude or inappropriate behaviour from their drivers.

How on earth do you think a CRB check is going to reveal whether someone makes 'Donald Trump style' comments about girls or not? He's not going to have a criminal record for that.

In fact, if he did have any sort of criminal record for sex offences it's highly unlikely he'd risk drawing attention to that by loudly making crude comments about schoolgirls.

Some drivers are lovely, others make my skin crawl and set off all sorts of alarm bells in my mind. This driver came to us from another depot, after an "incident" there. They're only rumours though.

If he's being moved about, realistically do you think the management at the bus company will do anything? If it's an LA bus I would take it up with them if it was me. I'd do it in a heartbeat.

My school bus driver got my mobile number from the school (he was given all students' numbers in case we were late) and used it to send sexually explicit texts. I was too scared to report it. It was awful.

I'm so sorry that happened to you lily

Lily.

OP

Maybe they need some training, that would be more useful than a DBS as it would address their behaviour and not look for criminality.

That would be a good idea.

Sorry to resurrect this thread. But from the age of 13 I was repeatedly groped by a number of school bus drivers in their 50s onwards. One of them was notorious for leering at and touching girls, he even went so far as to touch my bottom, say "my, what a pert little behind you have", and once also chases me and lifted me up, saying how pretty I was, he also openly read books about rape. This was back in the late 80s/early 90s, but I wish I or someone had spoken up about this vile man and his colleagues 😢

School bus drivers are DBS checked and the kind of idle talk/banter that you speak of I have never personally heard or took part in, we are also drug/alcohol tested at least once a month. The buses are also tested more rigorously than a service bus.

Northumberland council, also Cumbria, can’t comment on others.