This email from John Kirkby shows the murky dealings with the Criminal Records Bureau bureaucracy… ‘Last year, the London borough of Kensington & Chelsea discovered a “problem” with my CRB disclosure evidence. Around the same time my credit card had been fraudulently used and I’ve always assumed there was some connection between the two events. On contacting the CRB department, my enquiries were set aside by claims that my questions could not be answered for data protection reasons…in the meantime the police had contacted me requesting fingerprints & photos. ’The long & short of the matter was that my “problem case” was…

On the light side, this is a funny take on the tooth fairy. It would be funny, were it not so close to the bone… ‘Children losing teeth will find no money under their pillows for many weeks as the government has ordered the tooth fairy to undergo police background checks before she can continue working with children. “Employees of all government funded organisations have to undergo CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) checks before they can work with vulnerable members of society,” explained police chief Sir Ian Blair before reminding us that the tooth fairy in funded with tax payers money. Although the…

Eric Tweedie reports back on a meeting of the British Aikido Board: ‘I attended a meeting in Warwickshire to discuss “the way forward” as regards the BAB future policy on Safeguarding. Several things have become clear:- a/ Everyone is now completely fed up with regulation and governmental interference and there is now great resistance to anything further in this direction. b/ Everyone now agrees that adults have become estranged from children evidenced by the fact that no-one is willing to touch a child in any way even to comfort them after a fall or injury. c/ Everyone is terrified of the possibility…

This email from Mr M Parker is interesting, and very worrying. It shows how the refusal to comply with the child protection bureaucracy is taken as implied guilt. It also shows how ‘access to children’ is being taken in the broadest way possible, and including people who have no actual contact with, let alone responsibility for, children. The mere suggestion of a possibility of meeting a child is deemed enough… ‘I’m having to move out of my flat because I refused to fill in an Enhanced (CM2) Disclosure form sent by Ofsted because the landlord is a registered child carer. When I…

News comes of more professions taking on vetting – even though they are not required to do so by law. First, the Driving Standards Authority proposed that checks for driving instructors should be made compulsory. The organisation’s chief executive explained his reasoning: ‘Many parents put their trust in instructors to teach their children how to drive, and believe they are in a safe environment. Teachers in schools and playgroups are required to have such checks. I would like to see these checks incorporated as soon as possible so we can protect teenagers and young adults learning to drive.’ This despite the fact…

One American father says that his children’s elementary school is asking parent volunteers to be fingerprinted. What’s interesting about the school’s letter is that fingerprinting is presented as an innocuous service: ‘the Office of Human Resources will provide fingerprinting services…from 9am to 2pm…. [W]e ask that you plan to attend this event. Many of you chaperone field trips, work in classrooms and support the school in other essential ways. We hope this opportunity will facilitate your continued support’. Likewise, Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks are often presented as an ‘opportunity’ for which you are ‘eligible’. This soft language suggests that such controlling…

Arun, in West Sussex, has started vetting all its councillors, on the grounds that they are in a ‘position of trust’ and may come into unsupervised contact with children. Yet as one Lib Dem councillor pointed out, the fact that these people are elected means that they are known and trusted in their communities. The authority won through the ballot box surely counts for more than a tick of approval from the CRB. The justification for the policy is not to protect children, but to cover backs. A council officer said: ‘There are situations where councillors may have unaccompanied liaison with children…

Some policy wonk suggested giving lone mothers the right to do CRB checks on potential partners. Several contributors to this Mumsnet discussion site come out against the idea. One says: ‘the idea that you have to produce a certificate proving you’re not an abuser in the field of human relationships…is quite frightening…. It does encourage all of us to be scared of each other.’

Here is an email from Bryan Dedman, from Brentwood, about how child protection rules create problems for a small local church group: ‘I help run The Club at Brentwood Baptist Church. The Club meets on Monday’s and has a membership of about 12, half boys and half girls in the 11 to 14-age range. We just play games, table tennis, pool, playstation and have short talks. Tonight we may have to close for the night. We have 4 leaders but our 2 lady leaders are not available and we cannot meet as we have girls and no female leader on site. If…