What do people think about the police checks for teachers?

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I was just wondering what the general feeling about this was - i.e. children not being allowed to go to school because police checks on teachers had not been completed. Given that this is the case (I know the ideal would be for them to have been completed), do you think it better for the children to stay at home, or to be taught by an unchecked (but probably perfectly competent and trustworthy) teacher. The media at the moment seems to be erring on the side of 'how stupid to keep the children at home' but if an unchecked teacher were to commit an offence it would be a different story. NB TO ANY UNCHECKED TEACHERS - please don't be offended by this question - I'm a teacher too, I was just wondering what people's opinions are. I know some are getting upset that they are considered a danger, though they have not done anything wrong.

I think it is daft keeping the children at home especially after a long summer holiday. The people that abducted Holly and Jessica were police checked and passed the test.

I think there is far more danger in keeping kids off school when probably a fair proportion have not got adequate childcare arrangements in place. How much danger is there in a few days/weeks in a classroom with an unchecked teacher when there are other teachers nearby? Perhaps they could ban unchecked teachers from trips, after-school clubs etc when the risk is maybe higher?

I have been police checked so has my daughter, but who knows what we could do to a child in our care. (God forbid) Having a clear police check does not mean that there is no possibility that we would harm a child, merely that we haven't been prosecuted for it or have a record of offences against children.

Whilst unchecked people in the long term is not ideal, police checks are no certaintty against it happening. I don't feel that it is necessary to close schools until they have all been done, they can't have that many in each school needing a check, how many new staff a year do some schools have? My expereince as Chair of Governors for 10 years in four schools, tells me very few, or perhaps we have been lucky?

Also all supply staff have been checked and so are teaching agency staff, I'm sure the whole thing is being dramatised because of recent events, please do not read that as if I was undermining the horror of what happened to those two poor girls.

I was deeply moved by their disappearance and was in USA desperate to get a newspaper to find out if they had been found safe and sound, I was very upset when I read about it. DH was surprised by how much I was affected by it all. Perhaps because my parenst live only a couple of miles away and our family know the area well.

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But as we've seen people within a school environment have a unique relationship with the children which is open to abuse. Surely we have learnt this lesson - with tragic consequences. I know the checks are not ideal and do not rule out people offending against children for the first time, but there is no way of protecting against that. Surely measures that go part way towards protecting children are better than none.

I would say again, having had a check done does not mean they are not likely to commit an offence, they just haven't been caught, or have record.
These people are clever, very clever at staying out of trouble. Don't be mislead, a piece of paper means nothing.

sister, and Alibubbles, and everybody else; we had a child from Chernobyl to stay in June. Everybody over 16 in the house had to fill in the old child protection form - which cleared us almost instantly - and then we received the new CRB form, for everybody over 18, which took ages.

It did ask for a lot more information, including any names we had ever been known as, but as sobernow mentioned, Ian Huntley had changed his name and it wasn't at all clear how much they could find out if you didn't volunteer information like that.

He had probably not had to complete one of these new forms - they were only issued this summer - but it does make you wonder if the CRB would have picked him up even with the new form.

In any case, it seems highly unlikely that in the present climate even a dodgy teacher would take any chances prior to certification. The whole sitaution is completely bonkers.

Police check have always been carried out in Scotland even at the the teacher training stage. Is this not the case in England?

Maybe this has already been mentioned, and maybe I am completely off mark, but I can't help feeling that the back log is due to police checks not being done for months/years, and because of recent tragic events, govt etc have panicked so they now have a HUGE amount of people to check.

How long do 'they' intend to keep kids away from schools anyway? A backlog is not going to be cleared in a matter of days. This must, surely, be partly to be seen to appease public 'concern'.

What do you do if you have no childcare arrangements? Can you reclaim any childcare expenses incurred? Seems to be completely ill-thought through.

From what I understand - police checks are being carried out only on new teachers, learning assistants, etc.... in schools - there is no need to check the existing teachers as this would have already taken place - I also understand that these checks have to be renewed after so many years.

I'm not surprised at the backlog - I recently underwent a CRB check whilst I was registering to become a childminder and it was an absolute shambles - mine was quick (3 weeks) but my husbands took over 6 weeks for some strange reason. When I phoned them up to find out the situation they couldn't give me any information as they did not have the facility to do so! Very bizarre.

I saw on the television that some teachers are having to sit in the staff rooms and not speak to any pupils that they might see (even if distressed or misbehaving) because they are considered a danger to children until proven otherwise. Quite frankly if I were in that situation (and especially if I were a man) and wonder if being a teacher were worth being made to feel under suspicion in this way. Given the difficulties that there are in getting people to become teachers in the first place this is just potty. I am sure that all schools could put measures into place to ensure that no unchecked teacher is left alone with a child. As has already been said, Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr would probably have passed these checks anyway - I think that the only thing that might have identified them (assuming of course that they are guilty) would have been psychiatric assessment.

It is worth remembering that lots of these things are for the protection of teachers. As a teacher, I appreciate the safeguards so that a child can't make an allegation.

Of course I mean an unfounded allegation.

Well I don't think the teacher themselves should have to pay for it. Other staff at nursing homes etc have to have checks as well and some places are passing the cost onto the teachers, nurses etc.

It said on the news that even if you have been accused of something and not convicted that could stop you getting a job.

That's outrageous.