CRB none-sense

[Brown and Boris]

Morning rant.....Devolution is a great thing.

My son has a Criminal Records Bureau check in 2005 when he went to work in a Japanese school with the British Council. He had another one last year when he started work in an English school. He now has a job in a school in Scotland but he and 3 other new staff cannot start work because the 'Scottish CRB' checks have not come through. I cannot believe that they duplicate the work like this when less than a year ago he was cleared. He (and the otrher three) have been sitting waiting to start their new jobs for 4 weeks now while the school sruggles to cope.

Wales is no better. My daugher had CRB clearance in England and Australia and had to have it done again to work in Wales. She changes hospitals every 3 or 4 months and every time she moves, each new NHS trust does a new check.

I can see the issue from their position; liability if the wheel comes off but we (tax payers) are picking up the tab for these continual checks and I cannot see that they are any more secure afterwards because they have staff who have been in post for years who may have picked up a CRB conviction or tag and don't get regular checks.

[Cookie172]

I've just had one for a new job... it was more indepth than the checks I had for MoD clearance, they even want your bank details O_o

[Blib]

CRB checks are quite baffling sometimes IMO. I am a volunteer at a drug and alcohol treatment centre.

For some sessions that I attend with the patients I have to have CRB clearance, but for others I do not. Even though I am with exactly the same patients and sometimes the sessions segue into eachother.

[turbobloke]

The only saving grace is that employing or contracting institutions get to pay, not the individual being checked.

The other nonsense is that it limits the pseudo-protection to the small fraction of offenders who apply to work with vulnerable groups.

First offenders? Not a hope, of course. The protection afforded is largely illusory, though there is some. It lets the 'government' be seen to do something, no matter whether it's disproportionate or effective.

[richyb]

Don't get me started on this. I had a thread a few months ago on it. I had an enchanced one done and it took about 6 weeks. One of my colleagues who started in the same batch took 3 1/2 months. Obviously not being able to start the job until it comes through clear.

[richyb]

Brown and Boris said:

I can see the issue from their position; liability if the wheel comes off but we (tax payers) are picking up the tab for these continual checks and I cannot see that they are any more secure afterwards because they have staff who have been in post for years who may have picked up a CRB conviction or tag and don't get regular checks.

Not sure what the case is with other govt bodies but I have to have an enchanced CRB every three years. Ironic as I rarely meet kids in my job.

[Chrispy Porker]

I am an athletics official.
I will be banned from officiating if I do not have my CRB check done.
But as a parent I will still get asked to help.
Madness.

[markmullen]

It is down to the crap way CRB checks work, they are a bit like an MOT, they only record information present on the date of the check.

I've got an enhanced CRB and it is valid from 1st November 2007. If I was arrested for something on 2nd November 2007 it wouldn't show up, hence institutions doing multiple checks.

There is a new system coming in where you are on watch, if anything shows up during the period the CRB check (or whatever it is going to be called) is valid then it will be flagged.

[chris_w666]

The big problem with them is that they are only any good for catching people who actually got caught.

The kind of people they are supposed to weed out are some of the most vile scum in the country. Sadly they are also the best at avoiding detection.

We have to put up with CRB's but in my experience there is no substitute for someone's judgement. We had a guy volunteer for us with 6 pages of criminal convictions over 20 years, but on talking to the guy he admitted the whole lot and that he thought it would be a problem, though the assesment we made of him was that he would be the kind of guy who was 100000000 times more likely to have given a few kicking to paedophile in jail than to ever harm a kid.

[richyb]

"Have you ever been caught shagging sheep", "You must be good at it then". Classic playground humour.

[Tycho]

richyb said:

Brown and Boris said:

I can see the issue from their position; liability if the wheel comes off but we (tax payers) are picking up the tab for these continual checks and I cannot see that they are any more secure afterwards because they have staff who have been in post for years who may have picked up a CRB conviction or tag and don't get regular checks.

Not sure what the case is with other govt bodies but I have to have an enchanced CRB every three years. Ironic as I rarely meet kids in my job.

I had to have one with my company which took about 4 months to come through... I work for Sky and not with kids etc.

It only verifies that you haven't been caught yet.