Ofsted Have Replied To My Email

[Rea]

I asked...

I have 2 questions regarding CRB's and playgroups

 

1. Do staff and volunteers who have been regular members of a setting need to have a re-check after 3 years?

 

2. Does a volunteer who helps out once every 6 weeks need a CRB? They have no unsupervised access to the children.

 

Thank you

 

 

The reply...

Dear Ms Green

 

Thank you for your e-mail.

The changes in regulation put the responsibility for determining the suitability of day-care staff with registered persons. They must have proper checking and vetting processes in place to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in their care. During inspections CCIs will assess whether these recruitment procedures are robust.

 

Ofsted expects day-care providers to obtain other information as well as the CRB disclosure on which to base their suitability decision. These include:

 

• references

 

. full employment history

 

. qualifications

 

. interviews

 

. declarations about medical suitability

 

. any other checks necessary.

 

At inspection or registration inspectors will check the processes day-care providers have in place to obtain information and make decisions based on the information received. This may include checking records of numbers and dates of issue of CRB disclosures and asking individual staff for sight of his or her disclosure.

 

At present there is no requirement to carry out a CRB check in respect of an employee who has been with the same provider since obtaining the previous Disclosure Notice, or since appropriate checks were made on initial employment, if this predated the CRB.

 

If the policy changes, everyone affected by the change will be informed.

 

I hope this has been of help to you; however should you require any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Regards

 

Christian Lofthouse

Customer Service Advisor

Ofsted - National Business Unit

TEL: 08456 404040

________________________________________________________________

Same question to Capita, Nestor, TMG, CRB..

Heres Capitas reply...

 

Really you should have all people who work in the setting CRB checked however short the period of help may be, once you have a member of staff CRB checked it is up to the organisation to decide when or if they need to be rechecked through the CRB.

 

Regards

 

Robert

Robert Knight

Capita Recruitment Vetting Service

[HappyMaz]

Well that told you then Rea!

 

In other words, they're not going to tell you what you should be doing. They'll just tell you that you should have done more when they come to inspect.

 

Or am I just being a tad cynical?

 

Maz

[Rea]

Cynical? Us?

 

As there was no answer I've sent this...

 

Thank you for that, but what about a parent helper who comes in for a session once a term, or the parent who stays to help settle their child? Obviously it would be unworkable to CRB all adults who enter the setting, so what happens with the occassional volunteer helper?

[HappyMaz]

Cynical? Us?

 

As there was no answer I've sent this...

 

Thank you for that, but what about a parent helper who comes in for a session once a term, or the parent who stays to help settle their child? Obviously it would be unworkable to CRB all adults who enter the setting, so what happens with the occassional volunteer helper?

Good for you - keep on asking the awkward questions Rea - you never know: one day someone might forget themselves and give you a straight answer!

 

Maz

[Rea]

I've got to find out the answer Maz.

It makes me cross that thousands of people around the country are dealing with these sorts of issues and not being given an answer, while at the same time they are being penalised if they get the answer wrong.

[Guest]

I've got to find out the answer Maz.

It makes me cross that thousands of people around the country are dealing with these sorts of issues and not being given an answer, while at the same time they are being penalised if they get the answer wrong.

 

 

You've got it in a nutshell there! Quote " penalised if they get the answer wrong". The problem is , is that the statement

"The changes in regulation put the responsibility for determining the suitability of day-care staff with registered persons" is too ambiguous. We have all, I think, experienced the scenario where one Inspector may feel that references etc are enough where as another may want a CRB done for everyone, every time they move setting and renewed every year.

 

One year ( 2005) the Inspector argued that a member of my staff SHOULD have her CRB re-done EVERY 3 years, I had to really spell it out to her that this particular member of staff was my step daughter and I knew hand on heart that she did not have any convictions since her last CRB. . Believe me it took ages for this information to sink in, she was so 'hooked' on the idea of 3 yearly checks.

 

Can't wait to hear the next response. I bet it will be on the lines of ................wait for it....................................

The changes in regulation put the responsibility for determining the suitability of day-care staff with registered persons

 

Peggy

[HappyMaz]

This whole issue makes my blood boil. The CRB knows where all the applicants were when they applied for their enhanced CRB disclosure. Ofsted should have a record of everyone working in a childcare setting.

 

If - god forbid - a member of staff is convicted of an offence which makes them unsuitable to work with children, surely the system should be able to check whether this person holds an enhanced CRB and could inform the setting that things might have changed and offer advice about what to do. And even better, why can't the system say "oh yes, Jenny Bloggs has an enhanced CRB and this covers the work she does in a pre-school, at her daughter's school and in her a Brownie pack". Other roles and responsibilities can be added or deleted as required.

 

Employers could be given a statutory duty to tell Ofsted/CRB when a member of staff leaves or joins so that individual practitioners could be tracked. Then a prospective employer/voluntary organisation need only contact the CRB and ask if there is an enhanced CRB in force for this person, and if anything changed their status since the CRB was issued.

 

After all, the Government does all this when tracking which children are in receipt of education grant (and where) so why not apply the same stringent technology to keeping our children safe whilst not burdening everyone with yet more paperwork to do.

 

Feel better now...

 

Maz (proud bearer of four CRBs at the last count)

[Sue R]

Good one, maz!

 

That would be along the same lines as CAF, as well, so makes even more sense!! But since when did sense come into it!

 

Sue

 

PS, to be fair, we have had no probs, AS YET

[HappyMaz]

PS, to be fair, we have had no probs, AS YET

Nor me, Sue (apart from my own incompetence, sometimes ) but I do resent having to have a new CRB check done every time I sneeze. And then of course I went back to my maiden name and had to start all over again...

 

Or did I make that last bit up?

 

Maz

[Guest]

The whole idea of tracking employees seems to me to be a logical one but the problem is that with these departments the left hand rarely knows what the right hand is doing.

I had to have my CRB renewed after 8 months to continue as a volunteer at my kids school (local authority changes). 5 weeks later I had to have another one to be a PLA volunteer.

Someone somewhere likes a lot of paperwork.

 

Sally