To not know what I was doing in summer 2002?

[manysummersago]

It was nearly twenty years ago, but I do know I was not in prison, or serving community service, which my clean dbs attests to.

I am not being flippant about safeguarding but AIBU to think that this sort of approach isn’t helpful?

Yes, I understand that thanks comefrom, but my query is how it is related to safeguarding?

It isn’t, because if you were doing something sinister that you were convicted for it would show up on a DBS, and if you were doing something sinister you were not convicted for, it is highly improbable anyone would admit to it!

I mean, no one is going to put ‘worked at Smith’s corner shop and regularly put my hand into the till’, are they?

It’s a difficult one, because it’s likely when that sort of time has elapsed that there wouldn’t be references available anyway.

So if Sam Jones resigned under a cloud in March 2017 and then obtains work in September 2017 and worked there until august 2021, is anyone actually going to seek references from march 2017? Probably not.

If they reject applicants based on them not being able to explain and provide contact details for one brief period nearly 20 years ago, then they'll be excluding a large part of their potential recruits. It's probably unusual for people to not have gaps like that.

Or they'll waste lots of time trying to track down employers that no longer exist or those where the contact details are long forgotten. In this case, if you genuinely think you had the summer off between university courses or worked for an employer that no longer exists or you no longer have contact details - eg because it was for a pub/cafe etc that's changed hands, then that is your explanation. What more can you tell them?

They probably can't and don't go through every record anyway, they just want the information, so they could, if they wanted to. And obviously anyone who was found to have lied will be investigated much closer. After all, there will be people out there who are a danger to vulnerable people but have a clean record, because they haven't yet been caught, so it's not like the system stops people being harmed anyway.

if you were doing something sinister you were not convicted for, it is highly improbable anyone would admit to it

That's how it works in lots of places. Go to the airport - did you pack your bag yourself? No I let my BILs dodgy mate do it.

If you enter controlled environments like prisons, they ask you if you're carrying 'anything unauthorised' because clearly if you're packing drugs, you're going to fess up straight away, aren't you?

Well yes but that’s not quite the same. Equally pointless though!

@MintyMabel

Paedophiles slip through the net because they will lie and as you can't go back in time to check they are telling the truth and we aren't monitoring people

In which case it makes no difference asking people. Paedophiles will just lie and non paedophiles can't remember so have to make something up. Either way, children are not being made any safer by asking someone what they did for 3 months 20 years ago.

No it doesn't you're right. It's a tick box exercise. Just tick the box.

You must have had a really good summer to not remember it 😁!

I graduated in 1990 - I can remember what I did that summer - lots of dossing around in the park in the day time (when I was supposed to be writing up my dissertation which was due to be filed in the September) and worked part time in a pizza takeaway a couple of evenings a week.

If only! No, I do remember things that happened but nothing that I could include to explain where I was / what I was doing, if you see what I mean.

It isn’t important and I’ll just say casual bar work or similar, but I do resent having to explain ‘gaps’ as otherwise I could be in custody, except I clearly was not!

I had to fill in a safeguarding form (not UK) and it was sent back to me because I couldn't remember the number of the house I lived in from ages 1-5.