This article from the Telegraph is an interesting case study of how child protection rules work. Some schools are demanding CRB checks for parent visitors, because they believe this is necessary for Ofsted. Ofsted denies this, and says that there is no such rule. Over-cautious teachers, you could say. And yet this situation is emblematic of a new kind of political authority, where there is a rule for everything and you are encouraged to pre-empt – to always ask the question, ‘are we allowed to do this?: shouldn’t we have procedures in place?’ These head-teachers are not being paranoid, they are only thinking in the way that today’s procedure-happy bureaucrats tell them too.

Read on: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/6790106/Parents-forced-to-have-Criminal-Records-Bureau-checks-and-carry-photo-ID-when-visiting-schools-over-Ofsted-failure-fears.html