She stands four-square, and across her generous bosom Mrs Annabel Hayter is holding a bunch of white longiflorum lilies. But for the green pinny, edged with red, she might be a plaster female saint with the flowers a symbol of piety or martyrdom. Her expression, however, is anything but pious. It is mess-with-me-if-you-dare. From her picture, Mrs Hayter looks as if she has been deeply insulted, a pose she has had no difficulty in assuming. She is the unbiddable Gloucester Cathedral flower lady – chairman of the Flower Guild, no less – whose six-month refusal to comply with demands for criminal record checks has ended in her being forced to leave the flower rota. Five of her 60 fellow flower arrangers have also struck a blow for common sense over absurdity and resigned in protest. At issue seems to have been a bizarre fear that because the women shared a toilet with choirboys, there was a risk that paedophiles could infiltrate the flower guild. … [Read more...]
A flower arranger is leading a protest against over-the-top criminal record checks
Volunteers put off by Criminal Records Bureau errors
The following letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph on the 18th December Volunteers put off by Criminal Records Bureau errors SIR – Some years ago, the Criminal Records Bureau awarded me a conviction for a drugs offence committed almost 30 years earlier by a person with a different full name, date and place of birth, in a town I had never been to, and on a date when I could prove I was elsewhere. In spite of extensive correspondence, including articles in the local and national press, and a live radio interview, they refused to amend their records unless I gave them my fingerprints, even though they had no fingerprint record of the actual offender and could not, therefore, compare mine with his. I continued to work as a single-handed GP, which included looking after up to 100,000 patients while on call because, effectively, the powers that be could not sack someone who had been in his post for so long and had done nothing … [Read more...]
CRB staff to lose jobs
According to a report in the Liverpool Daily Post (here) more than 500 UK Border Agency and Criminal Records Bureau workers in Liverpool are to lose their jobs as part of government cost cutting. Two hundred Charity Commission workers in the city are also awaiting the outcome of a review that will lead to 140 job loses across their four centres in England and Wales. … [Read more...]
Manifesto Club brings glad tidings of a growing rebellion against senseless child protection rules
The Manifesto Club brings glad tidings of a growing rebellion against senseless child protection rules... VOLUNTEERS REBEL AGAINST VETTING The churches are ringing to the sounds of rebellion, as volunteers across the country say 'no' to criminal records checks and other over-cautious child protection rules. These Campaign Against Vetting supporters are on the front page of the Spectator this week, in a cover story heralding this 'Common Sense Revolution'. An edited version is republished in the Daily Mail. Lord Vinson, one of the rebel volunteers, made a speech in the House of Lords, in which he argued that vetting was a 'dagger to the heart' of volunteering. MOTHERS REBEL AGAINST NATIVITY PHOTO-BANS Today we launch a Petition Against Nativity Photo-bans, taking on schools' cruel no-photos rule that prevent parents from snapping their kids' Christmas plays. This petition is launched with two Welwyn Garden City mothers, who are fighting the photo ban preventing them from … [Read more...]
Cathedral flower arrangers and bell ringers fighting crazy criminal vetting of anyone who works near children
The following article by Josie Appleton appeared in the Daily Mail on the 26th November Last January, Annabel Hayter, chairwoman of Gloucester Cathedral Flower Guild, received an email saying that she and her 60 fellow flower arrangers would have to undergo a CRB check. CRB stands for Criminal Records Bureau, and a CRB check is a time-consuming, sometimes expensive, pretty much always pointless vetting procedure that you must go through if you work with children or ‘vulnerable adults’. Everyone else had already been checked: the ‘welcomers’ at the cathedral door; the visitors’ guides; the whole of the cathedral office (though they rarely left their room). The flower guild was all that remained. The cathedral authorities expected no resistance. Though the increasing demand for ever tighter safety regulation has become one of the biggest blights on Britain today, we are all strangely supine: frightened not to comply. But not so Annabel Hayter. … [Read more...]
Oxfordshire County Council is being swamped with demands for more than 60 CRB checks every day
Oxfordshire County Council is being swamped with demands for more than 60 CRB checks every day as part of statutory vetting for teachers, care workers, youth football coaches and foster parents. Councillors have called for a change to a system that has been “strangled with red tape”. Over the past three years, the number of annual Criminal Records Bureau checks processed by County Hall has more than doubled — from about 7,000 to 15,827. In some cases, the same individual is checked multiple times if they work in more than one role that requires CRB clearance. The council has a team of four full-time staff and one part-time officer working to process the mountain of CRB forms and the operation is costing it £337,625 a year. Council member Liz Brighouse said checks were needed, but the current system was failing and had to be revised. She said: “It is an imperfect system and we are spending a lot of money on it. The CRB check is only as good as the day … [Read more...]
Vetting and Barring Scheme: the chaos continues
High Court has ruled that the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 breaches human rights law. Background The Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) established under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (the Act) prevents those who are placed on the children's barred list, and/or the adults' barred list (the Barred Lists), from working with children and/or vulnerable adults. The Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) is the body which applies criteria set down in the Act to determine whether a person should be included in the Barred Lists. Where a person is convicted or cautioned for certain offences (broadly, sexual offences, violent offences and those involving mistreatment of children), the ISA must put their name on the Barred Lists. The individual is then given an opportunity to provide reasons why their name should be removed from the lists. Individuals have a limited right of appeal if the ISA decides not to remove their name. The minimum barring … [Read more...]
Vetting and barring scheme review gets underway
There are several reports in the Media about the Government's decision to review its vetting and barring scheme. These include:- Children and Young People Now: Vetting and Barring Scheme Gets Underway Daily Telegraph: Anti-paedophile vetting scheme to be ripped up … [Read more...]
Vetting and Barring: make your views known
How can I feed into the review process? The following extract has been taken from the ISA website The Government is committed to ensuring that the Scheme is set at a level which is appropriate to protect both children and vulnerable adults. As with all Government business, organisations are welcome to contact any of the relevant departments to express their opinions. We therefore welcome e-mails with your comments. Any contributions to the VBS review process should be sent to VBSreview@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk. The Independent Advisor also welcomes e-mails with your comments about the criminal records regime. These should be sent to CriminalRecordsReview@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk Please note that these mail boxes will only be active until 22 November 2010 and that we will be unable to enter into any individual correspondence. … [Read more...]
The Government announces a review of the ISA and CRB disclosures
Press Release from Home Office Scrutiny of vetting and barring scheme gets underway Friday, 22 Oct 2010 The system of checks that people working with children and vulnerable adults are required to undergo will be considered afresh in a radical examination of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS). he Government today outlined the terms of a thorough review of the VBS which will re-examine whether the scheme is the most appropriate mechanism to protect children and vulnerable people and, if so, how many roles should be covered by it. In June the Home Secretary, Theresa May, made clear the Government’s intention to bring the scheme back to common sense levels. This was in response to public concerns that in its current form the scheme was overly bureaucratic and burdensome. Statement by Lynne Featherstone Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone said:'While it is vital that we protect the vulnerable, this scheme as it stands is not a proportionate response. There … [Read more...]
Former Chief Constable critical of vetting policy
Julie Spence the former Chief Constable of Cambridgeshire Police recently wrote an article which was published in the Daily Telegraph in which she welcomes a more common-sense approach to criminal records checks. She says .... "It must never happen again." How many times have we heard this when awful events make the news? Something offends us, as right-minded people, and we believe, even convince ourselves, that with some forethought we can prevent it happening again. The result is not something that provides intuitive foresight, but often a time-consuming, bureaucratic process that acts as a "comfort blanket" – yet in reality has minimal impact on protecting anyone. In 2002, the murder of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells by Ian Huntley in Soham saw such an outcry. One of the results was a vetting scheme that now insists on more rigorous background checks into people employed in positions with … [Read more...]
Support the Maifesto Club’s campaign against irrational vetting
For some time now the Manifesto Club having been monitoring policy and practice in relation to vetting of staff and CRB issues in particular. If you have examples of bizarre practice they would be pleased to hear from you. You can email them to Josie Appleton here, or if you want to get more involved what not join the Manifesto Club. … [Read more...]
The High Court reserves judgement on a judicial review of staff vetting procedures
The High Court has “reserved judgement” on a judicial review of staff vetting procedures, following a two day hearing. The review of parts of the vetting and barring scheme, currently being rolled out by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, was initiated by the Royal College of Nursing amid concerns that it denied nurses a fair hearing and right to appeal. RCN chief executive and general secretary Peter Carter said: “The protection of children and vulnerable people is of the utmost importance. “What we are concerned about is that the scheme is failing to provide nurses with a fair hearing, the right of appeal, and can result in them being disproportionately barred for 10 years for less serious offences. “We believe the scheme contravenes articles six and eight of the European Convention on Human Rights which forms the basis for our challenge.” Following the hearing this week, on 12-13 October, the High Court is evaluating all the evidence and is … [Read more...]
Suffolk schools permit teachers to work before completion of the CRB vetting procedure
Schools in Suffolk are continuing to allow teachers to start working with children before they have been vetted by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), new figures have revealed. The Home Office agency is responsible for flagging up the criminal convictions of anyone applying for jobs with children or vulnerable adults. But an East Anglian Daily Times investigation has found that 47 schools and colleges in Suffolk have chosen not to wait for the results of the checks before letting staff into the classroom. The Department for Education said teachers were subjected to rigorous pre-employment scrutiny and checked against a database of child sex offenders, but could start before the CRB process had been completed. However, Chris Cloke, the NSPCC’s head of children protection, claimed no teacher should begin work until being fully vetted. He said: “CRB and other recruitment checks are an important part of child protection procedures and no-one should teach before being … [Read more...]
“The tide has turned.” Unlimited CRB checks may fall away
The following article by Jane Fae Ozimek appeared in The Register on the 11th October 2010 Unlimited CRB checks may fall away: 'Non-conviction' information doesn't clarify much, says Equalities Minister The end of nanny state checking is imminent. Or is it? Last week, Coalition Equalities Minister and Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone treated local constituents to an intriguing insight into her own and presumably Coalition thinking, on just how far the state should intrude into child-care arrangements. Writing in her local paper, the Hampstead and Highgate Express, Ms Featherstone starts with a sobering tale of a young black boy picked up by the police for the appalling crime of playing hide-and-seek on the grounds of a local hospital. No action ensued. But, of course, the record of the fact that this boy had been picked up – the "soft information" – would remain on file pretty much forever, and the result of a brief and … [Read more...]
Police vetting decimates ‘Big Society’ and doesn’t make children safer
Our attention has been drawn to a media release issued by CIVITAS concerning the publication a book Licensed to Hug witten by Professor Furedi which addresses isses concerned with the safeguarding of children and, in particular, vetting issues. Institute for the Study of Civil Society 23 September 2010 Police vetting decimates 'Big Society' Police vetting a 'disproportionate interference' that doesn't make children safer With the imminent results of the Coalition Government's major review of the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS), which regulates contact between adults and any child not their own, independent think tank Civitas releases a new edition of Licensed to Hug, which insists the Government must get rid of the VBS once and for all. The dramatic escalation of child protection measures, such as the VBS, has created an atmosphere of suspicion that actually increases the risks to children and damages relations between the generations. The pernicious consequences of … [Read more...]
Does the law permit employers to apply for CRB disclosures
H641mn raises another problematic CRB issue: the tendency of employers and other bodies to apply for CRB disclosures without giving any real consideration to whether the law permits it. All CRB disclosures (whether standard or enhanced) contain records of spent, as well as unspent convictions and cautions, so the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA) applies. The ROA provides a measure of protection against disclosure of "spent" convictions. The act's main function is to provide "rehabilitation periods" so that after a certain amount of time has elapsed (depending on the sentence given for the offence), a person is treated for most purposes as not having been convicted at all, and is not required to disclose the fact of their earlier conviction. The police do retain the data: the records are not "wiped", but ordinarily should not be disclosed. Section 9 of the ROA makes it a criminal offence for those who have access to official records of convictions (such as … [Read more...]
ThisIsMoney website clarifies vetting procedure
I start work later this month as a care assistant in a nearby care home. My understanding was that in addition to the usual Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks, I would have to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) under the Vetting and Barring Scheme. I have now been told that it is no longer necessary. Is this true? Caroline Noblet, partner and International Head of Employment at Hammonds, replies: Yes. It was previously intended under the Vetting and Barring Scheme that new employees and job-movers working or volunteering with children or vulnerable adults would register voluntarily with the ISA from July 26 this year with compulsory registration following in November. However, on June 15 the new Government declared a halt to registration while a review was undertaken after criticism that the current system was disproportionate and burdensome. In the meantime, the usual CRB checks remain, as … [Read more...]
New forum for CRB issues established
A new forum has been set up for sharing information and discussing issues relating to CRB issues. Although the site is totally independent of FACT it contains a lot of useful information. You can access the site here … [Read more...]
Been affected by CRB disclosures? FACT calls on Government to repeal Section 115 of the Police Act
As many of you will be aware the Government has set up a Your Freedom website (here) so that the general public can makes requests for unnecessary and harmful laws to be repealed As part of this initiative e FACT is calling on the Government to repeal Section 115 of the Police Act which allows Chief Constables to inform prospective employers of matters relating to allegations which have been made against individuals even though they may have been cleared of any wrong doing by authorising the Criminal Records Bureau to providing them with an Enhanced Certificate of Disclosure If you have been affected by CRB disclosures add you support to this initiative To add your support click here … [Read more...]
ISA vetting scheme halted
The vetting scheme for nine million people working with children and vulnerable adults in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has been halted. Home Secretary Theresa May has announced that registration, due to begin next month, has been put on hold. There will be a review of the entire vetting and barring scheme, with a scaling back to "common-sense levels". Shadow Home Secretary Meg Hillier says the cancellation is a "knee-jerk reaction". The government says the vetting scheme would have been "disproportionate and overly burdensome". Draconian The proposed vetting database had been a response to the murders of two schoolgirls by school caretaker Ian Huntley in Soham in 2002. Children's authors and school leaders had complained that the plans were an over-reaction. Mrs May told the BBC that the measures were "draconian". "You were assumed to be guilty until you were proven innocent, and told you were able to work with children," she said. "All sorts of … [Read more...]
RCN launches legal action against safeguarding scheme
The Royal College of Nursing is launching a judicial review of a vetting scheme it fears will breach nurses’ human rights and have “catastrophic” consequences for their careers, Nursing Times can reveal. The RCN believes the scheme breaches nurses’ rights to a fair trial and to privacy The move also follows concerns the controversial vetting and barring scheme would make nurses overly cautious about comforting or being left alone with patients. The scheme, introduced last October, is aimed at protecting children and vulnerable adults and will eventually require all nurses to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority. The RCN is taking action to help members who face being struck off by the ISA for 10 years without a fair hearing or a right to appeal, after committing relatively minor offences. RCN general secretary and chief executive Peter Carter said: “Of course, nursing staff recognise that the protection of children and vulnerable … [Read more...]
2012 dream of teenagers is crushed by child safety laws
Thousands of teenagers will miss the once-in-a-lifetime chance to help at the 2012 Olympics because of new child protection laws. Games organisers have set a minimum age of 18 as they begin recruiting 70,000 volunteers including marshals, ticket inspectors and first aiders. The age policy will come as a huge disappointment to thousands of under-18s who had hoped to help at the world's largest sports event. Games organiser Locog said that it had adopted the policy to comply with legislation which will require adults to be subjected to regular checks if they are working with children. It may be impractical to carry out these tests as Locog has to hire and train its helpers within two years in the biggest peacetime mobilisation of a British workforce. Adults working with children will be vetted by the Independent Safeguarding Authority, which was set up in response to the Soham murders under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006. The body has attracted … [Read more...]
Gwent Police admit sending a reporter confidential information
Gwent police unwittingly emailed a reporter at online tech publication The Register with a spreadsheet containing the full names and dates of birth of over 10,000 people who had applied for Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks – including the results of the checks and even their current occupation. The email clearly identified 863 people who had been in trouble with the police – nice to know that a member of the public was handed this sensitive information on a plate. The story provides yet another example of confidential and highly personal data being almost routinely leaked by the government. Remember the Revenue & Customs loss of data on 25 million people in 2007 or the loss of thousands of NHS records last year? … [Read more...]
Hundreds of thousands of home tutors will refuse to register on a state database
Hundreds of thousands of home tutors will refuse to register on a state database designed to prevent paedophiles from working with children, a poll reveals today. At least 11 million teachers and others who regularly work with children or vulnerable adults will be required to register on the database, which will be run by a Home Office agency, beginning this summer. Self-employed home tutors, of whom there are 750,000 in the UK, have been asked to register by the agency – the Independent Safeguarding Authority – but are not obliged to do so. Three quarters of respondents in a poll of 525 tutors, conducted for thetutorpages.com, said they had no intention of registering on the so-called vetting and barring scheme. They said the database was intrusive and would damage trust built up between parents and tutors. Four-fifths believe it will fail to stop abusers harming children, while 68% argue it will lead to miscarriages of justice. Those registered on the … [Read more...]
