Checking the fees

Wednesday, August 8, 2001

Your news story, 'Don't pay for police checks, carers told' (19 July) was right to point out that daycare providers in England and Wales do not have to register with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) or pay for Disclosures. Ofsted will act as an umbrella body for the sector, and the Department for Education and Skills will meet Disclosure costs, at least initially. I am sorry that some daycare providers have been confused over this issue because of information we have sent them. This has happened because any organisation requesting information about using the CRB is entered in our database, and will automatically receive application forms inviting them to register to use the Disclosure service. The daycare providers that have received application forms recently will have at some time in the past contacted us independently for information.