Climbdown over vetting rules ‘a victory for commonsense’
Around 2million adults will no longer be affected
Published:
SCHOOL leaders last night hailed a UK Government climbdown over rules that required 11million adults south of the border who work with children to undergo criminal records checks as a “victory for commonsense”.
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said he had accepted all the recommendations of an independent review into the Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS). Adults will now only have to be vetted if they see the same group of children or vulnerable people once a week or more, rather than once a month.
Mr Balls said around two million adults would no longer be affected.
He ordered the review by Sir Roger Singleton, chairman of the Independent Safeguarding Authority, following a storm of complaints that volunteers were being deterred from working with children because of the VBS requirements.
The changes were welcomed by the Scout Association, teachers’ union NASUWT, children’s charity Barnardo’s and author Philip Pullman.
The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, Dr John Dunford, said: “This is a victory for commonsense.
“Sir Roger Singleton and the secretary of state have recognised that the previous rules would have unintended consequences for schools and parents.”
The key recommendations by Sir Roger – to be published in full today – include:
Adults, such as children’s authors, who go into different schools or similar settings to work with groups of children should not be required to register unless their contact with the same children is frequent or intensive.
There should be immediate changes to the rules so that 16, 17 and 18-year-olds in education will not be required to register.
Overseas visitors bringing their own groups of children to the UK should have a three-month exemption from the requirement to register.
Mr Balls said that while there had been some “ludicrous over-reactions” to the legislation, it was important there were measures in place to protect children.
He said: “A head teacher who is saying you should not come into school without a check, you shouldn’t help with the school play – that is a ludicrous over-reaction.
“It is not an over-reaction to say that we should make our children safe. What we shouldn’t do is do that in a way that is unnecessarily burdensome or doesn’t quite get to the point.”
Pullman, the author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, said: “This sounds like an improvement. My concern, and that of countless other people, is that we would all have to be vetted, which is quite ridiculous. We have managed without this for years and there’s no need to introduce this kind of regulation now.”
Tory shadow children’s secretary Michael Gove welcomed the move but said there were still “fundamental problems” that should be addressed to achieve “proper focus on keeping children safe”.
