CRB madness

[pigsinmud]

This is mad.

This year we have been told we need to get crb clearance to change our own children for school swimming lessons! I just don't understand it. We take our own year1 dd into an individual changing rom and yet we need crb clearance.

It is going to be chaos for the reception class - 24 children needing to be changed with 1 teacher and a ta.

My dh has 5 crb forms for various schools, but doesn't have one for dd's school so that's no good.

Perhaps I had better get myslef crb clearance for giving her a bath at home..... absolute madness.

My sister has to be CRB checked to 'volunteer' to help out at the school booksale. It is madness. It is out of control. Who is funding all of this?

The school has to pay for any parent who wants to help their child get changed. I really just don't understand it.

CRBs are free for volnteers. But why would parents need to help anyway unless they have special needs. aT my children's school they all got changed for swimming with a teacher and a TA no problem. Occasionally another parent who is CRB checked as she is a governor helped out.

Maybe it is a polite way of trying to get parents out of the changing room.

I think expecting 2 adults to change 24 4 year old children is a bit much. They have 15 minutes to be changed and back on the coach - tight turn around. Let's just say it'll be chaos this morning. Plus the fcat half the class are hysterical because they don't want to go swimming!

You need CRB clearance because you are having contact (however transitory) with children not your own under the nominal supervision of the school. So in theory, it's their responsiblity if you quietly cultivate inappropriate relationships on their watch.

Yes, I agree it's madness! But plenty of people have had for years to undergo CRB checks when they have if anything, even less contact that OP will have.

Actually, I'm gonna backtrack. I think the school is being reasonable.

What if a mom told you that she recognised one of the dads helping his son change, turns out that the guy had been on trial for sexual assault 16 years ago? How many parents would be up in arms about the guy being allowed to help, even if it's only his own son, and even if he had been found Not Guilty at the time? School can't win, can they?

If he was found not guilty then he would clear through a crb check.

But what if that same man cleared a crb check and then sexually asulted a child and you didn't know?

I had to have a CRB check to help run a buggy walk. All the children are in their buggies and being pushed by their mums. What do they think I am going to do?

I think an enhanced CRB would show up the arrest and trial for any offense, just as they show up cautions and unproductive investigations.

I hate to bring this up, but (before Soham) wasn't Ian Huntley only ever alleged (many times, sadly) to have committed sexual assault? Before the Soham murders, I am pretty sure he was never even cautioned for a sexual offense, much less tried (I think the only thing that he was found guilty of was a single burglary offense -- which admitedly also would have ruled out his caretaker job at the school).

So the enhanced CRB HAS to delve into unproven allegations to be any good.

Why on Earth do the children need to be "changed" surely (unless they are SN and should have extra help) reception age kids (4 and 5) should be able to get themselves dressed. Ours (yr 1) has 30 kids, the same as last year in reception and they manage to get full changed for PE and back into their uniform with minor help (fiddly buttons, twisted tights) from the 1 teacher.

it's utter madness. Adults go into public swimming pool changing rooms all the time when children are around at weekends.

Or maybe soon we'll all have to be crb checked just to go swimming

Ridiculous.

I would ask the school, 'why?'

But two police orces in two counties didn't do their checks and that was why the school employed him - had the police done the checks as proceedure then the school would have had the relavent information.

As for being arrested if the proceedures aren't filtered through then no it would not show up and so you would need to have a regular monthly check to be cleared all the time.

Of course dc can get undressed and put a swim suit on - its a matter of time, whn mine were 5 they would take forever then 5 minutes in the pool and out again

When you're dripping wet and cold and trying to get your uniform back when you're only I think it's a bit tricky.

I'm sure even with all this crb crap we'll still have scout leaders being prosecuted for 10 years of abusing children and we'll all say I don't understand it he was crb checked. I just find it very sad.

The school have said it's the county council enforcing this. Also heard today that a friend, who is a supply teacher, can't help with her sons's trip because she is not crb checked as a volunteer - she's on the pay roll of county council so if she was being paid she could go ... I mean wtf is going on.

If they're going to insist on crb checks why not make them transferable - dh has 5 enhanced crbs (as he works one to one with children) but he still can't change his own dd in an individual changing room.

lljkk - this is to change my own dd in an individual changing room. I will not see or help other children get changed. Why would I be up in arms about this innocent man changing his own son?

What I think is madness, is the fact that everybody has to get CRB'd for every different county they work in! Supply teachers have it the worst as they might live on the boundary of several different areas/counties & will need a CRB for every one of them. Why can't we just have one to cover whatever we do, wherever we do it?

I am a teacher and have a CRB check for my job. I am not however, allowed to go into my DC's school to help as I would need another CRB check for that!? How can I be suitable to be in charge of 30 children one day of the week but not be trusted to go in and help in a school the next day Madness.

I'm the same as cece. I work in the same county as my dd's school, but I have just had to complete a CRB form to be allowed to go in and hear readers.

I totally agree that anyone who has any contact with children should be fully crb checked. I also think it should be done regularly, not just once and then forgotten. It might be a pain in the arse, but meh, our children's safety is more important, surely.

I also agree that the crb's should be transferrable though. Does anyone know the reasons that they are not?

Yes I don't understand why they're not transferable between schools if they're the same level or is it because they can be kaked so original docs need to go directly to school. Maybe 2nd school to ask for one gets it cheaper as CRB have already cheked it out?

I was in a mad situation a couple of years ago where I worked for an organisation which also had a commissioned nursery onsite (ie. the nursery was "employed" by the larger organisation). I had to have two separate CRB checks done as neither organisation would accept the other's CRB check, even though they were in the same building! What a complete waste of time and money that was!

I have a crb check dated 15/8/09 for new job as playgroup leader yet still have to fill in forms to be able to help out at ds new school - even though they have seen the crb check and I have been associated with the school for 15yrs through my other children. This will come out of the school budget.

Madness.

Someone is making - or is going to make - and awful lot of money out of this .

but didn't Ian Huntly have another name in a differtn county?

crb is fine, but it completely relies on the applicant's honesty

Not completely reliant on honesty, the applicant needs to provide lots of very up-to-date documents to verify identity and address.

And each time they are vetted in whatever new role is, they have to provide all those documents again. It's because of the need to verify identity each time that CRBs weren't originally designed to be transferable.

There has been talk for years of making CRB checks somehow 'transferable'; some organisations do allow it, btw, as long as the CRB is fairly recent (less than 1 or 3 years), and all fresh identity checks are done, too.

We have had CRB checks sent back countless times becasue people forgot they lived somewhere for 3 months as a student etc and the searches threw it up.