CRB

Some years ago, in a typical governmental knee-jerk reaction, the then Government introduced a scheme intended to make life safer for vulnerable persons, be they children, elderly, a sandwich short of a picnic, blind or whatever. Anybody taking a job that entailed working with vulnerable or potentially vulnerable people would be required to submit to a check at the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). The CRB maintains a database of people convicted of crimes against vulnerable people. Crimes such as shop-lifting or speeding are (I think) disregarded. So the applicant fills in the enquiry form and produces two forms if identification such as a recent utility bill (to confirm the address) and passport (to confirm identity) which the employer has to record on the enquiry form. The form, together with payment (£32?), is sent off and, in due course, clearance is obtained and the applicant may start work.

But the scheme is not restricted to those in paid work: volunteers are covered by it as well. So every leader in the voluntary youth sector (Scouts, football coaches, whatever) and people helping out as, for example, social clubs for the blind, have to submit to CRB checking. Fortunately, there is no charge for checking a volunteer otherwise all those youth groups would be flat broke.

On the face of it, this might appear to be a good idea but there are a couple of snags. Firstly, clearance is not transferable between different employers/organisations. So, for example, a teacher who has had to obtain clearance at school will need to submit to another check if she helps with a Brownie pack in her spare time. As a result, I have come across people who have upwards of six or seven CRB certificates! A plan had been announced to make these checks transferable - but that involved adding another layer of bureaucracy and has been shelved.

A second snag is that nobody seems entirely certain just when CRB checks are necessary or even desirable. Some say that anybody who is only helping with a vulnerable person or group of vulnerable persons but is not left alone with them doesn't require to be checked. Take, as an example, Father Christmas. If the child's parent is present all the time, is it really necessary for Father Christmas to undergo CRB checking? Some folk say yes, some no. And was it really necessary for me to submit to a second check in order to act as a volunteer driver for the blind club? I have been checked through Lions and it is Lions who are providing the drivers...

It's all far too complex for a simple mind like mine, and I'm not convinced that all this has made any vulnerable person any safer than they were before. As I said right at the start, this seems to me to have been a typical knee-jerk reaction without sufficient thought having been given to the real effect of the legislation.