Tighter police checks urged
Organisations representing the early years sector and school staff across the UK have called for the Government to tighten up its system of checks on all people working or applying to work with children.
Organisations representing the early years sector and school staff across the UK have called for the Government to tighten up its system of checks on all people working or applying to work with children.
The calls followed the two life sentences given to school caretaker Ian Huntley for murdering ten-year-old Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman at his home in Soham in August 2002.
Following the revelation that Mr Huntley had numerous allegations of underage sex made against him yet was able to be employed as a primary school caretaker, home secretary David Blunkett announced an independent inquiry into how the police handled information about Mr Huntley's past.
North East Lincolnshire Area Child Protection Committee has also been asked to commission a serious case review to look at how agencies in the area carried out their duties to protect children. Mr Blunkett said, 'While I hope the existence of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) will mean that there could be no repeat of events such as these, I want to be absolutely sure.'
Tricia Pritchard, professional officer with the Professional Association of Nursery Nurses and spokeswoman for the CRY campaign for the national registration of all people working with children and young people, said, 'We endorse the comments made by the head of the Soham Village College that allegations of serious criminal offences made against applicants should be disclosed to organisations looking for staff to work with or near children. 'In the past we have called for support staff in schools to be subject to the same rigorous checks as teachers and we have demanded that all those working with children be subject to the higher level disclosure.'
The National Association of Head Teachers also demanded a 'radical overhaul' of the current system of vetting school staff and for support staff to be subject to the same higher level Enhanced Disclosure check as teachers. Debra Shipley, Labour MP for Stourbridge, who was responsible for the Protection of Children Act 1999, called for the law to be changed to allow retrospective checks on school staff. She said, 'If they were employed ten years ago then they won't be checked, because this clashes with current employment legislation.'
Mrs Shipley also called for the police to be allowed to keep so-called 'soft information' on allegations made against individuals for up to 20 years and for the police to 'be required to keep it and share it with other forces'.
But Rosemary Murphy, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, said, 'There needs to be an overhaul of the system, but I would be nervous about allegations being kept on record. There are few enough men in childcare and teaching in primary schools as it is.'
Mrs Pritchard said this case exposed flaws at the heart of the vetting system. She said, 'The CRB is reliant on the efficiency of police forces to put information on to the register, yet many are not meeting the seven-day deadline to do so. But why should it take as long as seven days?'
Home office minister Hazel Blears admitted to the House of Commons that police forces needed better systems for in-putting arrest and conviction details. She said the findings of a year-long inspection in two phases from March 2001 to April 2002 were 'not encouraging'. Only 79 per cent of arrest and summons reports in England and 76 per cent in Wales were logged on the system within 24 hours, while only 38 per cent of court results in England and 30 per cent of cases in Wales were being put on the police national computer within seven days, and 80 per cent of cases reached it within 28 days.
Ms Blears said, 'We know that the CRB can only be as good as the data available to it. That is why our ongoing work with police forces to ensure that the police national computer is kept up to date is so important.'
