to ask the school to give me a CRB check?

[SparklyGothKat]

I have a disabled son and as a result I am regularly asked to transport Ds1 to school trips etc, as its easier for the school. This week I have been on 2 trips and was asked to transport 2 other children who have medical conditions. I said that I would do it, but only with the parents premission. The parents were fine with it, and thanked me. But I am sure what i did was wrong and I should have a CRB check if transporting other children apart from my own. Should I ask the school to pay for a CRB check if they want me to do this regularly?

[SoupDragon]

They don't CRB check all the parent helpers on school trips though do they??

[Blondeshavemorefun]

spakly - what you are doing ISN;T business though

under dictionary business is stated as

1.an occupation, profession, or trade:

2.the purchase and sale of goods in an attempt to make a profit.

what you are doing doesn't fall in either catergry, as long as you are not paid for it

[Blondeshavemorefun]

soup dragon - no - but then the parents arent left alone with the children as sparkly was (alone in her car)

[Blondeshavemorefun]

christie - you teach - therefore assume you get paid -so it is a job/business to you

OP doesnt get any payment, does it out of the goodness of her heart

[wannaBe]

you do not need business insurance.

you are transporting your own child on a school trip and in so doing so you are (voluntarily) transporting other children. You are not being paid to do so, therefore you do not need business insurance. (I worked for a car insurance company for three years).

If a teacher has insurance to transport children this is business purposes because the teacher is transporting the children as part of his/her profession. The policy would read something like "social domestic and pleasure with travel to and from a permanent place of work" (that is the general insurance on all policies, but if you have business as well the wording is then increased to say "with use for the purposes of his/her business" (or words to that effect - was a while ago) but "his/her business" means as part of your job, i.e. teacher.

hope that makes sense.

[islandofsodor]

Blondeshaven.

I am not employed to chaperone children in the theatre. It is a volunteer thing. I do it for local youth theatres and amateur dramatic societies and for the dance school shows my daughter attends. The education welfare officer made it quite clear I must NOT transport children other than my own child whilst chaperoning.

We are just getting quotes to renew our car insurance and I have noticed loads of extra questions including do you use this car purely for social, domest9ic and pleasure, do you use it to commute to work, do you use it whilst at work and do you transport children.

Because it is the school asking you to transport these children you need to let your insurance company know or they will not pay out. If you were taking your dc's best friend out for the day that is classes as domestic, because this is through school it isn't. "Business" is just a term the insurance companies use to denote the type of cover rather than it having to be actual business in terms of the dictionary definition.

it doesn;t cost anythihng to ask, if they say not then at least you know and are covered.

[Blondeshavemorefun]

i stand corrected

but you def need a crb x

[SexyMilf]

If you get a CRB as you are a volunteer it will not cost your school anything, the local authority will be set up to process you in the same way they process all the employed staff; however if you have a CRB from within the same local authority it may be considered transferrable, even though it is over 3 years old. CRB chesk now have no expiry date and are actually considered out of date as soon as the are issued (helpful huh!) but speak to the CRB / Personnel team at the local authority and they will tell you everything you need to know and that is agreed for schools in your area.

[SparklyGothKat]

so my old CRB might be valid? Would the school know I had a check at ds1's old school? could that be why they trust me?
I used to go and listen to kids read etc, at his old school, and remember something about a crb check being done...

[robinpud]

spgk- more than anything I feel very for you that the school placed you in this position. Imagine if any of the children had had a problem or if you were involved in an accident. The parents should have signed a specific consent form. The schools' trip coordinator should have spoken to you and you should have been carrying contact details for all children. I'm guessing you weren't properly briefed about this and it makes me worry about the school's approach. I teach and I loathe the rigidity of all the procedures involved in taking kids off site, however they are there to protect the children and equally as importantly you
Please talk to the school, I think they have treated you and the kids shoddily. If they are organising a trip it should be accessible to all children and it is the school's responsibility to ensure that appropriate provision for children with any osrt of adiditional need is in place.
sorry to be so long.

[Sidge]

SGK Motability insurance has really strict criteria about what you can and can't do - I would just phone them and put them in the picture. I'm sure they won't class it as business use and it won't require any amendments to your policy but at least if you've told them then they have no room to argue if you should (god forbid) need to make a claim for an incident where you had other children in the car.

[SparklyGothKat]

Have been in today and spoken to the lady in the office, and she is going to talk to the dept. head about getting me a CRB check.
I realise now that I should have had contact details etc, I did have one of the teachers phone number (which I had to eat afterwards lol, not really, but had to destroy it)

I was asked the week before about one of the girls, and I said only with parents premission. Then on the day I was asked to transport the other one, again I said that they had to phone the parents. The parents were fine about it, but, like I said today to the lady in the office, if sometime happened then I am accountable, and if someone gets wind of me transporting kids without a CRB check, then it will cause trouble for me and the school

[Blondeshavemorefun]

i wouldnt take any other children till you have had your crb done again - not worth the risk

[SparklyGothKat]

school have refused to CRB check me.. said it takes too long

[islandofsodor]

It takes around 4-6 weeks and is free for volunteers.

How strange.

[robinpud]

I agree with Christie- as I said before, the school's approach is really worrying- very unprofessional on many levels.