This document clarifies the recruitment and vetting checks that should be carried out on staff in schools, including volunteers, contractors, supply staff, governors and visitors.
For more detailed information relating to CRB within the education sector, contact Essex Disclosure Service. Essex maintained schools can access the
Infolink website for further information.
Existing staff
Schools are currently not required to carry out a CRB check for existing staff who were in post before the establishment of CRB, which was introduced in March 2002.
There are exceptions to this though, and they are:
- Where there are concerns about the person’s suitability to work with children
- Where an individual moves to a post that involves greater contact with children than their previous post did, and their previous post did not require a CRB enhanced disclosure.
All school employees are required to declare any convictions or cautions which arise during the course of their employment. This is set out in the statement of written particulars which require any caution or conviction which arises during the course of employment to be declared.
Staff moving between schools in Essex
Essex Local Authority recommends that the school may accept an existing disclosure and are not required to seek a new disclosure if the following criteria are met:
- The employee has not had a break in local government service of more than three months
- The employee has an enhanced disclosure that was issued in respect of a post working with children
- The existing disclosure was issued through the Essex County Council umbrella body of the CRB in the last two years.
However, schools should verify the previous disclosure by completing a verification form and sending it to the Disclosure Unit.
New staff
The School Staffing (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2006 and the intended School Staffing (England) (Amendment) (No 2) Regulations 2006 make it mandatory for CRB enhanced disclosures to be obtained on all newly appointed school staff. This includes those who do not work directly with children, for example administrative staff, caretakers and other ancillary staff.
Schools must also ensure that the person is who he or she claims to be. The school must ask to see proof of identity such as birth certificate, driving licence, or passport combined with evidence of address, before an appointment is made. Some form of photographic identity should be seen except where, for exceptional reasons, none is available. Proof of identity is also required to undertake the CRB disclosure.
Foreign language assistants
The British Council have an agreement between a number of countries that allows foreign language assistants to come over and work in schools for a temporary period. The individual will have to provide with their application a police clearance certificate/s from their country of origin. For more information, contact
Essex Disclosure Service.
Volunteers
The Department for Education (DfE) recommends that schools do not check volunteers who are continuing with their old duties, unless there is cause for concern.
For new volunteers, or those taking on new duties that lead to increased contact with children, it is recommended that schools should consider obtaining an enhanced CRB disclosure, where the volunteering is regular and involves contact with children.
The DfE use the term regular to mean: three or four times in a thirty day period, or once a month or more, or overnight.
In coming to a decision headteachers should consider the following:
- The duration, frequency and nature of contact with children.
- What the school knows about the volunteer, including formal or informal information offered by staff, parents or other volunteers.
- Whether the volunteer is well known to others in the school or community who are likely to be aware of behaviour that could give cause for concern.
- Whether the volunteer has other employment, or undertakes voluntary activities where referees would advise suitability.
- Any other relevant information about the volunteer or the work they are likely to do.
Contractors
Children should not be allowed in areas where contractors are working, not least for health and safety reasons, so these workers should have no contact with children. However, it may be impossible to control this and there may be occasions when contractors do come into contact with children (such as when entering or leaving the site).
Therefore, schools should ensure arrangements are in place to make sure that any contract staff that come into contact with children are checked by the contractor in the same way as school employees.
Schools may sometimes have difficulty obtaining written confirmation from the contractor that they have satisfactorily completed the relevant checks. If this is the case, schools can decide to carry out the relevant checks themselves with approval from the contractor and individual.
An exception to this is where a contractor is on the school site for the purpose of a meeting scheduled with the headteacher and/or chair of governors. As this is a one-to-one meeting and will involve no unsupervised contact with children written confirmation that the checks have been carried out is not needed.
However, if the contractor then has contact with children, they should not be left unattended, and they should be supervised at all times whilst on the school site.
These contractors should still sign in and sign out when visiting the premises.
PFI and other contractors
PFI contract staff (for example caretakers and catering staff) must be checked by the contractor in the same way as school employees (i.e. with a CRB disclosure), and such requirements form part of the contract. The outcomes of such checks must be notified to the local authority/school.
The contractor is also responsible for ensuring that the same procedures are followed by any sub-contractor. The contractor must provide the local authority/school with a list of its employees and those of any sub-contractor at least 20 days before they start work on site.
Supply staff
Before taking on a member of supply staff provided by the supply agency, the school will need written confirmation from the supply agency that it has satisfactorily completed the relevant checks.
The school does not need to carry out or see the checks itself, except where there is information contained in the CRB disclosure. However, identity checks must be carried out by the school to confirm that the individual arriving at the school is the individual that the agency intends to refer to them.
Where supply staff are employed directly by the school, the school must complete all relevant checks as for other employed staff.
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