CRB checks and playgroup/preschool committees

[EmmyLou]

I'm getting really confused here. Do you have to pay to have volunteers checked? Can an outside body such as disclosures.co.uk or whoever run the checks for you or do they have to go via Ofsted? How can I find out how much it costs for staff and committee volunteers?

Ofsted website doesn't mention cost at all.
Can't seem to find the correct info on PLA website either.

Please spell it out for me someone!

Do you mean parent helpers? If so then you don't need to have them checked, but they cannot take a child (except their own) to the toilet and need to be with a qualified person in the room or outside.

Not sure about staff but we don't pay for committee, my vice chair does it so can't remember the details but we certainly have all committee members done now, but not parent helpers.

I know all about it but can only 1-hand ype tight now.
Assuming ur a charity
Ofsted checks commitee members, other volunteers checked thru ur umbrella group (same body does paid employees).

I can send u our manual (word doc). CAT me?

Thanks lljkk - yes, we are a charity and I know all committee members have to have enhanced disclosure - I have already only previous chair did it so not sure where she sent forms off to. We also need to have staff redone as the documents have been lost as the files move around successive committee members.

We've paid about £40 per staff member in the past which is a lot of money for us. I have been in touch with disclosures.co.uk who provide an online checking service, charging a handling fee for volunteers but the standard CRB £36 ish for staff.

Whilst the cost IS an issue, I can see the benefit of going to an organisation such as this as they hold all the group's info online (this would be reassuring bearing in mind recent lost documents) and can process/inform you of mistakes filling in forms much quicker. But is this valid? Or do allchecks have to be carried out via Ofsted?

(Err, please remind me - what is CAT?)

HI, hopefully I have a quick spell 2 handed.

The system is changing (it's always changing, actually!), so I am talking off top of my head, you will need to research on your own.

But roughly:

For staff, you should be able to get CRB checks done via an umbrella group (you do identity checks and form-filling, the umbrella group does quality control and submits to CRB for you). If the staff have never had a CRB check in your setting previously, the check will be free. If they have previous CRBs, you have to pay - -and yes, they cost a lot!!

The umbrella groups include Capita, TMGCRB (google for websites).

For volunteers who haven't been checked in your setting previously, you should also be able to get CRBs done for free via TMG/Capita. £40 is a good price, actually, I thought you'd have to pay more like £55.

Comtee members all CRBd via Ofsted, who also require DC2 for extra background.

I said system is changing... sometime next year (I think) people will start to get individual disclosures, they won't get a CRB check done for each new role or setting. I don't know exactly when that new system is coming in. A person will give you their disclosure number & proof of identity, you will phone to get the info over the phone about that person.

CAT=personal message on MN, use the yellow letter symbol next near my name on this post. Or I can cat you if you don't mind.

I wrote a whole manual for our preschool (which I could forward you), which if you read it might help you get some idea. But the procedure/'best practice' is always changing, so it would only be start.

hth.

Oh wait, you can use existing staff disclosures if they are willing to bring their disclosures to you & you are wiling to forego any info that might not have been sent to them, and the disclosures the staff have are less than 3 years old. This is in your discretion to do this as a preschool. Just lay a big papertrail about it, with numbers noted and records of what documents used to verify address & identity.

There are only 3 usual umbrella groups, Capita, TMG and another one (can't recall name). You could phone each up and see which one your preschool already has a contract with (they can figure it out using your postcode, saves some hassle, although contact person/new contract will have to go out to be signed newly).

I have dealt mostly with TMG, they were pretty helpful. Very good at helping me understand what papertrail to make.

You need records of Disclosure numbers for all committee members, too.

You will fail Ofsted inspection, btw, without records of CRB checks seen & when, so don't backburner it.

Checks for Nurseries and early years are being handled by Capita Education, Nestor and TMB CRB until September this year when I believe all the funding will be reviewed. Currently these organisation are being paid by OFSTED to cover the costs of checks but this may change around September/October 08 when its being reviewed. (There are I believe requirements though to have your costs covered by these Umbrella Bodies if you don?t meat the requirements then you might have to pay up to £47-£48 for paid employees)

Checks for Volunteers are free if you are registered directly with the CRB, however it costs £300 to register with CRB directly and you need to be submitting at least 100 applications a year. Nearly all Umbrella bodies charge admin fees as they have to cover the costs of postage and admin and these ranges from reasonable fees of between £7-10 like the ones someone mentioned through disclosures.co.uk. However there are some companies charging obscene costs, I have come across some other companies charging from £60 to £105 per application.

I?m not to sure with the comment about committee members needing Enhanced disclosures, I think you will find that they only require standard unless they are going into a school environment or they supervising children. This is also the same for Trustees of a charity, so I would double check before getting enhanced because requesting the wrong level of CRB if not required could be considered a violation of an individuals rights.

The new system is coming in August of 2009 with the full introduction of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, this scheme will run alongside the CRB and will mean anyone working in a regulated role or environment will need both a CRB and registration to this scheme. With the new system you will pay approx £62 and this will get you are CRB check and registration to the scheme which essentially means that you will be put onto an approved register with the ISA of people that can work with children or vulnerable people for the rest of your life.
With the new scheme employer will be informed if an employee commits an offence which then bars them from the list. You can register for only an ISA registration and don?t have to get another CRB check if you already have one, but the cost is the same and the CRB have to carry out all the checks again anyway.

After August next year if you take on new staff without them being on the new register it will be an offence and an employer could face a fine of up to £5000. The good thing though as I said is once someone is on the scheme they have a pin number so when a persons moves to a new employer they will give them their number and the employer can register their interest in employing the applicant online with the ISA and check if they are on the register and then in theory hire them straight away. #

This system looks to overcome the problem of someone needing a new CRB check for every job but I think the CRB stats are something like 60,000 people have been denied employment with employers since the CRB began and these were people that were not bared from working with children or vulnerable people but employers considered the offences were serious enough to deny employment and essentially the only way you will find this out is by doing a new CRB check. An example the ISA gave was if you have a school bus driver registered to the scheme and he is convicted of drink driving outside of work, then this will not ban him from working with children and the employer would not be informed.

Hope this helps, sorry if any of this is confusing.

Best place for more info on the new scheme is .isa-gov.org

Thanks

Hi
Sorry I'm new to this thread so not sure if it's still active...???

I've just taken a position on the committee of a nursery (registered charity). I'm trying to organise CRB checks for the new committee and found this thread which has really helped me out.

lljkk - would you be able to send me the guide that you offered to another member???

Thanks

Volunteers are free through the CRB, however most Umbrella Bodies will charge an admin fee for a disclosure, this is because they are helping to administer the process, provide advise and support and pay costs such as postage etc.

The three bodies supporting OFSTED are TMG, Nestor and Capita, I believe charge £47.50 an application for a paid member of staff, therefore once the CRB fee is deducted (£36)this would leave a charge of £11.50.

Up until October of this year the fees were being paid by OFSTED or DCFS if you went through one of these three Umbrella Bodies (for anyone that came under the Early Years Category.)
However I beleive this contract has now ended, therefore it means the fees are not being covered by them. So to answer your question what you pay is up to you, because the admin fee you pay will be the one you get from shopping around.

Hope this helps.

Remember also, that the DC2 form has been replaced by the EY2 form and there is LOADS of paperwork!
I've got 10 of them to send off to Ofsted just for the committee and it's going to cost a fortune in postage!