Hi not to be rude but I think people are getting a little confused with government guidance and employers/companies own policies perceptions of the law and guidance.
Under the DFES published document ?Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education? which came into force on the 1st January 2007 it is not a requirement for parents to get checked it is down to the Head of the school to make this decision in these instances. Governors and PTA members are normally recommended to be checked because they may have some level of control over functions in and around the school and where they are held.
Volunteers needing CRB checks do not Pay the CRB any fees for their checks, therefore if a volunteer does incur a charge then this is Registered Body or employer that is putting on an admin fee.
The CRB does not recommend anyone under the age of 16 having a CRB checks and if they are in secondary school and are going into a work placement with a nursery, a school or care setting with children or vulnerable people then again they do not require a CRB check.
If a child goes into a work experience placement then it is recommended to the school that one supervising person or Chaperone within that organisation has a CRB check carried out on them. Even if the chaperone is a paid individual, because the role they carrying out is a voluntary one for which they receive no extra money or benefit then they would also be classified as a volunteer, because they only require a CRB for a voluntary role of supporting a work experience student.
Some may think CRB are over the top, but to be honest its not them taking it the extremes because its more often than not employers who don?t understand or haven?t read the guidance and are therefore applying for inappropriate checks on their staff.
I think you will also find that the CRB or central government recently published that about 60,000-70,000 people have been denied employment with children or vulnerable people since the CRB began checking people. This is a small percentage compared to the millions of people that have been checked, but personally I feel a lot better knowing that the people that are looking after my kids at school and nursery have had these checks done and worry when like mad when they go on these field trips to help educate them as those people aren?t required to have CRB checks.
If anyone has read the Bichard Enquiry and recommendations after the Soham murders, the one of the findings I think I recall was that people that are a danger to children and the vulnerable are applying for jobs within non regulated environments and in regulated environments in roles such as cleaners and gardeners. I?m not trying to say that we should automatically presume that everyone is a sex offender and it?s a sad state of affairs that we have to take these precautions, but quite frankly I don?t even want to contemplate the implications of not doing these checks, because I have a family and I cant even contemplate hearing about another Soham.
I will make a quick comment about the knife crime, the NHS I think just published within the last week that approx 14,000 people were admitted to hospital within the last year with stab wounds and most of which were not reported to the Police. I think the real issue that everyone seems to be avoiding is where the kids are buying these knives from! Well I can tell you, shops that are not asking for ID and that are for some reason allowed to sell these pointless devices and the other place is over the internet. Has anyone looked at the auction sites, just log and take a look on some of these UK sites you can buy Swords, Machetes, fake guns and every Knife imaginable, its quite frankly appalling that its legal to sell them.
Thanks for reading my comments.