Maggie Dyer, who runs the London Au Pair and Nanny agency, said, 'It seems to me that we still have to do all the hard work for the umbrella bodies, filling in forms and doing ID checks, and they just take the money.'
She said it affected her 'hugely' as a small agency, because she could not guarantee to need anything like 100 checks a year. Many nannies returning to the agency after a job had either undergone a CRB check recently or already possessed CRB clearance.
The changes also affect sports clubs, children's charities and independent schools.
A CRB spokesman said that its decision to streamline the registration process and create a smaller network of registered users followed extensive consultation and that it would ensure more efficient use of resources.
The CRB has more than 14,000 registered bodies. Around 10,000 carry out fewer than than 100 checks a year. Of these, nearly 4,000 did not submit a CRB check last year. The spokesman said that 89 per cent of CRB checks are carried out by 22 per cent of the CRB's registered bodies.
But Helen Kewley, who runs the Nice Nannies Now agency in Cambridgeshire, said she paid 300 to the CRB when it was set up so that she could be a counter-signatory in the vetting process.
She said, 'We have not been submitting a high volume of checks. What annoys me is that I am expected to do all the work I did before and have the same level of responsibility, while paying someone else.'
She said the most recent checks she had done cost 36, while umbrella bodies listed on the CRB website charge up to 60. The CRB spokesman said the requirement on umbrella bodies to publish charges allowed 'market forces to operate more effectively'.
