Nursery World - Confusion dogs police checks

The confusion over criminal records checks for nursery staff in Scotland is so widespread that even some officers working for the new Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care did not know what was going on until two weeks ago, Nursery World has learned. Applications for checks need to be countersigned by a body registered with Disclosure Scotland, the new criminal records checks organisation. In March the Scottish Executive said the Care Commission would act as the registered body for nurseries and other childcarers. But it has since emerged that this is not the case, although the Commission did act as an agent between providers and the Scottish Criminal Records Office before Disclosure Scotland began on 29 April.

Applications for checks need to be countersigned by a body registered with Disclosure Scotland, the new criminal records checks organisation. In March the Scottish Executive said the Care Commission would act as the registered body for nurseries and other childcarers. But it has since emerged that this is not the case, although the Commission did act as an agent between providers and the Scottish Criminal Records Office before Disclosure Scotland began on 29 April.

A Care Commission officer, who asked not to be named, said she only became aware of the situation two weeks ago. 'Everything came to a halt. Providers were phoning up and saying, "Who's going to do the checks?" We said it had stopped for the time being. Then we found some of them had been told they would have to register themselves.'

She added, 'There is a danger that providers will either use people who haven't been cleared or work understaffed. We are currently not protecting vulnerable adults and children.'

She also expressed concern that Care Commission officers had not yet received guidance to accompany the care standards and had little information about training. 'We are not in a position to register new premises or childminders, and the backlog of childminder applications is unbelievable. The information available to us changes from day to day and even within one regional office there are masses of different bits of information.'

The Care Commission will act as the countersigning body for childminders, and voluntary playgroups can go through the umbrella group Volunteer Development Scotland. But private nurseries and playgroups with paid staff face becoming registered bodies or finding another organisation to act for them.

David Wiseman, Care Commission director of operations, said, 'The Care Commission has recognised that while Disclosure Scotland has distributed a significant amount of information about these changes, including holding seminars, a number of organisations appear to have little knowledge of the current situation. Therefore we have offered to distribute information, on behalf of Disclosure Scotland, to those organisations registered, or considering registration, with the Care Commission.'