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I am a teacher. I am therefore required to have a certificate from the Criminal Records Bureau which says I am not a paedophile. (And I do - Yay for me!)

There is now a big fuss about the ISA scheme that does something similar for people who, for example, give kids a lift to football training each weekend.

Now, when I've entered GW London and GW Bluewater, on at least 3 or 4 occasions the store has been empty of other people except for children well under 16 and the GW staff. I've only ever heard GW staff speak and act appropriately to these young people, so I am confident that they are suitable for this role, but as they are effectively performing a childminding service and I wonder if they have the paperwork in place to do so. or if GW may be facing some awkward times the first time a parent complains, whether or not there is any substance to any accusations they make...

So, does anyone know if GW staff are required to have CRB clearance? If not, do they have it anyway? Have any parents ever looked into this?

Good question.

Actually, a quick google search reveals that GW will only support gaming clubs whose organizers are CRB cleared, so presumably their own staff must be...

Yes they do, both full and part time staff members.

This was introduced just as I left GW, thankfully I didn't have to get mine done as my notice was already handed in.

Why thankfully? Well because I don't see the point in the CRB for GW staff members and see it as an extension of the ludicrous tabloid invented hysteria which gives the impression that paedophiles are lurking round every corner wanting to snatch your kiddies away. Quite frankly I found it insulting to suggest that I need to have my history raked through before I could be declared safe to be round children. So much for Innocent unless proven guilty eh!

Remember folks the vast amount of child abuse is committed by a close family member and no amount of background checks will stop it.

Quite true.

Also, background checks were brought in after Soham. The Soham murderer had relevant form but the at the time mandatory b/g checks weren't done properly for some reason.

So apparently it is now necessary for another chunk of bureaucracy to do a load more b/g checks.

LuciusAR wrote:
Remember folks the vast amount of child abuse is committed by a close family member and no amount of background checks will stop it.

Hmmm... good reason not to have CRB's then... oh wait...

CRB's should be done just in any job related to children. It should be a routine part of a solid background check.

It did used to be before Soham for school staff.

Like gun licencing involved mental stability before Dunblane.

Another case of buying a second padlock for the stable door after the horse bolted because someone in charge of locking the first lock didn't.

Kilkrazy wrote:It did used to be before Soham for school staff.

This is a total red herring; CRB checks would NOT have stopped the murders. It's well documented that Huntley met the girls via his girlfriend’s job, not his. Even if he had a check and failed it it would not have made a difference.

But still what’s are little things like privacy and presumption of innocence when the precious kiddies are under threat......oh wait.

Fifty wrote:Actually, a quick google search reveals that GW will only support gaming clubs whose organizers are CRB cleared

This is a recent change, apparently there was some trouble at one of the clubs and now it is mandatory, even for clubs that don't have members under 16.

youngblood wrote:

LuciusAR wrote:
Remember folks the vast amount of child abuse is committed by a close family member and no amount of background checks will stop it.

Hmmm... good reason not to have CRB's then... oh wait...

CRB's should be done just in any job related to children. It should be a routine part of a solid background check.

We have to have a US version of a type of background check for helping in the church with kiddies and volunteering at the school.

Unless you're me of course. I'm the stick part (or switch D with st maybe). If they mess with the kiddies then the BG's are thrown into the attic with me.

George Spiggott wrote:

Fifty wrote:Actually, a quick google search reveals that GW will only support gaming clubs whose organizers are CRB cleared

This is a recent change, apparently there was some trouble at one of the clubs and now it is mandatory, even for clubs that don't have members under 16.

Yeah, it was a GCN group where something bad happened, apparently...

Personally, I think that although the vast majority of child abuse takes place in the home, CRB is still worthwhile for people in a position of trust with children. A guy at the school I worked in in Japan was done for grooming and sleeping with well-underage girls. It was not actually happening in our own school, but rather over the internet, and I do not know the full circumstances surrounding what happened, but I know I would not want that guy getting a job in a school ever again when he gets out of prison, so thorough background checks are needed.

I do think that CRB checks for people giving them lifts to footy training is OTT though, as are CRB checks for people like authors who are never actually even left alone with children when they visit schools.

I would like to think they have done. I shall ask one of them later as I'm going in for a game at my local GW tonight.

I work for Portsmouth Public Libraries and had to have a CRB done on me. I had one done a year before because my girlfriend's mum is a childminder. I've come back doubly-squeaky clean!

I can't see why anybody in their right mind would want to kidnap kids anyway, more bloody trouble than they're worth.

In Aus it's a WWCC, or Working With Children Check. Basically the same thing, a criminal history check. I don't know about business owners, but I needed to get one to do printer installs at schools.

Regardless of if they would or wouldn't have prevented the Soham murders, surely a quick check that could potentialy stop a child molester can only be a good thing?

I appreciate that some may feel a CRB check (or it's equivelant in other countries) is an invasion of thier privacy, but the anger should not be leveled at the government, it should be leveled at the sick individuals who make it neccesary for such checks to be carried out. Also such checks are not carried out for the purposes of nosing through your personal life, they merely look at if you have even been convicted of or investigated for an offence which would make you unsuitable to work closely with children.

Imagine you had a child and they were touched up by a teacher or youth club worker who had previous for kiddy fiddling the first question you would ask is "why did no one check thier back ground?"

I have had a CRB check, as the girlfreind is a teacher and I regularly help her out with school plays and the like, I had no problem with it.

The trouble is the CRB checks don’t just check for things that may indicate you are a danger to children, they reveal everything, any contact at all that you have had with plod.

Ever gotten a caution for having a spiff when you were a student?
Ever gotten in a fight when you where a teenager and the police where called?
Ever been stopped for having a broken light or for speeding?
Ever been the subject of a malicious and yet entirely false accusation, even if it was thrown out or you were acquitted?
Or are you just a bit lonely and considered a bit weird by your neighbours and thus attract lots of gossip and tittle-tattle?

Because these are kind of things that gets revealed to your boss via the CRB check, despite the fact that they are no one else business and are utterly irrelevant to your suitability to be near a child. The old ‘nothing to hide, nothing to fear’ defence is utter cobblers.

The check has very little to do with protecting children, they are a tick box for companies insurance policies, give a false sense of security and they ruin far more lives than they save. Even worse than that they result in a whole generation brought up to believe that all Adults are out to get them despite there being no evidence to suggest this. It’s popularist bureaucratic nonsense.

Arctik_Firangi wrote:In Aus it's a WWCC, or Working With Children Check. Basically the same thing, a criminal history check. I don't know about business owners, but I needed to get one to do printer installs at schools.

When my club was hosted at the local PCYC (Police Citizens Youth Centre), all adult members were "advised" to become "Volunteers".
All "Volunteers" had to be first-aid trained and OH&S certified.
All "Volunteers" had to have the WWCC checks done (although they did have police on premises - just never on our days, sundays - for this) and passed to qualify for being a "volunteer".

I know some of the staff at my local store had to have them as well (but the exact same background checks were done for my previous job in a secure Apple warehouse).

I work for Portsmouth Public Libraries and had to have a CRB done on me.

May have to pop in and annoy you one day
but yea, you will find that all GW staff members, full time or part time need to be CRB checked.
Why? You will find that most workers in such public places will need one.
Yes, it can look like its a bit OTT, but in all fairness, if you have nothing to hide then a CRB wont do you any harm

JD21290 wrote:
Yes, it can look like its a bit OTT, but in all fairness, if you have nothing to hide then a CRB wont do you any harm

I hope the smiley at the end indicates you where being sarcastic/mischievous. Nobody seriously is taken in by the nothing to hide nothing to fear argument. Are they?

This is interesting:

Wikipedia (Criminal Records Bureau) wrote:The CRB was criticised for ineffectiveness in late 2003 following the Soham Murders trial. Ian Huntley, a former caretaker found guilty of murdering two girls of a Cambridgeshire secondary school, was found to have been suspected of a string of offences including rape, indecent assault and burglary. His only conviction before the murders was for riding an uninsured and unlicensed motorcycle, but a burglary charge had remained on file. The CRB, as well as Humberside and Cambridgeshire police forces, came under heavy criticism for their failure to stop Huntley from slipping through the net.

Sociologist Frank Furedi has stated that CRB checks cannot provide a "cast-iron guarantee that children will be safe with a particular adult", and that their use has created an atmosphere of suspicion and is "poisoning" relationships between the generations, with many ordinary parents finding themselves regarded as "potential child abusers".[1] The restrictions imposed by the CRB check process have contributed to a shortage of adult volunteers in organizations such as Girlguiding UK.[1]

I have to be 'List 99' checked to do my job so I'm not opposed to taking such checks if the situation requires it. Thinking on about the GCN CRB requirement it does seem to be a lot of personal information given to an organisation such as the GCN, in fact it seem to me to be a borderline data protection (DPA) breach keeping information about people that the do not need.

JD21290 wrote:

I work for Portsmouth Public Libraries and had to have a CRB done on me.

May have to pop in and annoy you one day
but yea, you will find that all GW staff members, full time or part time need to be CRB checked.
Why? You will find that most workers in such public places will need one.
Yes, it can look like its a bit OTT, but in all fairness, if you have nothing to hide then a CRB wont do you any harm

I'm mainly posted in the North End branch but often sent out to the Paulsgrove one. So come and bug me, would be nice to chat about junk!!

I have nothing to hide and knew it wouldn't do me any harm. And I didn't mind them poking around my background although I'm staunchly against the current system of government and will one day see it toppled like the house of cards it actually is.