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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To be loody furious with the moneyspinner that is the Criminal Record Bureau?

29 replies

coldtits · 04/01/2010 12:41

I have been waiting since the 18th of October for my CRB to come back. I cannot start work without it, I am stuck on IS and getting poorer by the week.

It cost me £50, and is so inefficient I could do it quicker myself.

OP posts:
ImSoNotTelling · 04/01/2010 12:45

YANBU.

Out of interest do employers have a legal duty to wait for you, or do people lose job offers over this?

corriefan · 04/01/2010 12:49

Don't get me started! I've got loads of the bloody things, one for the council, one for each individual state school, one for private school, one for other work I do etc. And they run out if 3 months elapse between days worked, however, even half a day of work can reset it for another 3 days! The waste of time and cost is ridiculous. There needs to be a more efficient way of being checked quickly. Grr.
That is ages to wait by the way, I've had one sent off and back since then.

corriefan · 04/01/2010 12:50

reset it for another 3 months I mean!

TheFallenMadonna · 04/01/2010 12:50

At my schoo, we had to have another memeber of staff in the room with our new teachers for weeks at the beginning of term , because the disclosures were late coming back

loobylu3 · 04/01/2010 12:51

Completely agree with you- it's a loony waste of tax payer's money! There are so many things in this country that are a complete, inefficient waste of time and money (rant).

Original poster
coldtits · 04/01/2010 12:57

I don't know if I could lose the job. They have given me a lot of training, so if they DO ditch me over this they will lose out. Which is good

Why can I just not have a 'passport' number to give to any employer, so that they may go and have a look themselves whenever they feel like it?? The whole point of a disclosure is that it discloses everything - there's nothing on my records so why can't they look at them?

OP posts:
Ivykaty44 · 04/01/2010 13:00

Is it actually illegal to work with vulnerable people or children without a CRB check?

or is it just the scaremongering that makes employees insist on one.

Does it really make any difference? After all the Plymouth nursery worker had a CRB check so soes that devale the check?

Original poster
coldtits · 04/01/2010 13:02

It is illegal to work without one,it is illegal for them to put you to work without one, not scaremongering.

OP posts:
ImSoNotTelling · 04/01/2010 13:05

Why do you need a different one for each employer though? It doesn't make sense (to me - but Im not a civil servant )

TheFallenMadonna · 04/01/2010 13:16

As I understand it, you don't necessarily need a different one for each organisation, but each organisation is responsible themselves for safeguarding, and therefore if they don't do their own checks...

MrsMellowdrummer · 04/01/2010 13:21

The system is supposed to be changing soon isn't it - I'm sure I read something online a few months back. I think there's a new body coming which you can pay once to register with. Employers can then check with that body to make sure you are approved. Any change to your status should also automatically be communicated to relevant employers. Seems much more sensible - wonder if it's still happening?

ImSoNotTelling · 04/01/2010 13:22

The check is on the individual though, it should be portable with that individual. To do exactly the same thing over and over again is silly.

Like coldtits says it would be much more sensible to pay a one off fee to get in the system, then have an ID that employers can use to check themselves.

I suppose that would mean less cash for the govt though.

Do any other countries have systems like this I wonder, that are so wide-ranging and expensive.

MrsMellowdrummer · 04/01/2010 13:22

I have heard, by the way, of people losing jobs because CRB didn't come through quickly enough.

pointydig · 04/01/2010 13:31

I suppose, though, that if you have a CRB disclosure at one point in your life and never need to have another one, there is a high likelihood some people will then apply for jobs with the same outdated disclosue at a later date.

It is a very clunky system but it must be pretty near impossible to make it anything more than partially effective.

pointydig · 04/01/2010 13:33

I meant to say that som e people will be caught commiting a crime and then apply for jobs at a later date with the same old CRB check.

ImSoNotTelling · 04/01/2010 13:34

If it were online though it would be updated as things happened. So the record would always be current. You would pay once to be "on the system".

It is shite that people are losing jobs over this.

MrsMellowdrummer · 04/01/2010 13:34

Just checked, and it's the ISA.
It's not very clear from the website when it all goes live though. It does state quite clearly however that there will just be a one off fee.

Ivykaty44 · 04/01/2010 13:35

coldtits - I ask because I work now in a public council office where public come in - I need a CRB check.

I used to work in a Hotel, had access to sma e public and had access to bedrooms did babylistening service etc - never in 5 years did I have a CRB check. I still don't know of any hotel workers who have CRB checks, yet we all came in contact with childrena dn lone children left in rooms.

So not being funny but can you show me the act of parliment that says you need a CRB check?

ImSoNotTelling · 04/01/2010 13:35

It also doesn't make sense about the 3 months lapsing thing.

Either employers need to check again for updates every so often, or they don't.

Having a job doesn't stop people comitting crimes

littlerach · 04/01/2010 13:36

There is a new initiaitve starting called Independent safeguarding Authority (I htink) which will do as Colditz suggetsde - hold you on a list once you've been chcekd
here
and then you will be given a number and this can be given to new emplyers.

I'm not sure if you'll still need a disclosure, as I don't know how often the list will be upadted.

I went on a Child Protection course a while ago, and soem of the people in the room had up to 10 disclosures.

I have 5, all for th esame county, just different jobs that I've had, all withinn 5 years.

Coltitz, can you call the company and find out why it is taking oslong?

Ivykaty44 · 04/01/2010 13:42

here is the CRB website

I can't find anywhere that it is law to have a check - it does say that you need to register to run checks.

serenity · 04/01/2010 13:42

It took a year for mine to come through, by which time the toddler group I was meant to be running had had to close down, because there was no one to run it. I was slightly pissed off /understatement of the century. School are quite happy though as it means they have a mug willing, checked volunteer to go on class trips every five minutes so often.

Missus84 · 04/01/2010 13:42

It is ridiculous isn't it?

When I registered with Ofsted I had to get a CRB check and a German police record check as I'd previously lived there.

CRB check took almost 3 months

German police check, including going to the consulate and sending my request off to Germany and it being sent back - 10 days

Original poster
coldtits · 14/01/2010 18:05

STILL no CRB

OP posts:
muddleddaizy · 14/01/2010 18:25

Contact your MP. I emailed mine, they wrote to the CRB people & low & behold a couple of weeks later I had my CRB. Too late for the job I wanted though