Bryan Slater Director of Education	Distribution
	All Norfolk Headteachers

This document needs your action as detailed below:

ACTION	Title	Criminal Records Bureau
	Summary of contents	MI Sheet, Letter, List and Proforma
	Associated documents	Criminal Records Bureau
	Date	19^th April 2004
	Summary of action required	To note and take action as appropriate
	To be completed by	30^th April 2004
	LEA Contact	Glynis Ballard	(	01603 222522
	E-mail address	glynis.ballard@norfolk.gov.uk
	Norfolk Self Review reference	7. How well is the school led and managed? 8. How well does the school use its resources?
	Document reference	MI 88/04

CRIMINAL RECORDS BUREAU

It is now nearly two years since the Criminal Records Bureau commenced operations, and you will recall the difficulties that we all faced at that time as the Bureau struggled to keep pace with the volumes of Disclosure Applications that were being sent by Local Education Authorities. Various short term measures were put in place to help resolve the problems and the CRB itself has been the subject of a review of its operations that has resulted in improvements in performance.

I thought it would be timely to recap for you the procedures that should be followed when requesting checks against police records and to give some guidance about the positions in schools that are subject to checks, where it might be more appropriate to request a check against the DfES List 99, and those situations where a check might not be necessary at all.

The attached list provides details of positions where the postholder is subject to a check against police records. Where the postholder has transferred from a similar post within the Authority and there is evidence that there has been no break in service with Norfolk LEA, no further CRB check is required. For all other staff taking up positions that are subject to checks coming from another employer or where there has been a break in service, a CRB check must be undertaken.

Supply Teachers

Supply teachers should not be employed to work with children until all pre-employment checks have been completed, including a CRB check. All supply teachers included on Norfolk’s Supply Teachers Register will have had all of these checks completed before their details are released.

If your school uses supply teachers provided by an agency, you will need to satisfy yourself that a CRB check has been undertaken before the teacher works with children.

Overseas Teachers

When a teacher recently arrived from overseas is appointed, the CRB will be unable to provide a disclosure as there will be no records held against addresses in this country. Nor will it be appropriate to undertake a List 99 check.

As part of the school’s normal recruitment processes in these situations, the teacher could be required to contact the appropriate bodies in their previous country of residence for a “Certificate of Good Conduct”. You will need to be aware, however, that the provision of these varies from country to country, as does the extent of checks made against police records.

Further information about obtaining a certificate of good conduct can be found on the CRB website www.crb.gov.uk

Volunteers

What is a volunteer?

For CRB purposes, the Regulations define a volunteer as a person who: ‘is engaged in any activity which involves spending time, unpaid (except for travelling and other approved out-of-pocket expenses), doing something which aims to benefit some third party other than or in addition to a close relative’.

Guidance from the DfES confirms that all volunteers who have regular contact with children must be subject to at least a List 99 check, regardless of whether they have unsupervised access to children. However, where volunteers have the opportunity for regular, unsupervised or one to one contact then a CRB check must be undertaken.

Volunteers at one off events, where there will be no unsupervised access to children would not normally need a CRB check.

There are of course many other categories of volunteers, and Headteachers working with their Governing Bodies will need to apply their professional judgement in deciding where CRB checks are needed. The criteria that should be taken into account in these circumstances would include:

The duration, frequency and nature of the contact with children,

· Any other information that the school would have about the volunteer,

· Whether the volunteer is well known to the school community,

· Whether the volunteer has other employment or undertakes voluntary activities where referees could advise on suitability.

· Attached to this letter is a pro forma that schools need to use when applying for a List 99 check only.

There are a number of other situations where it would not normally be necessary to apply for a disclosure. These include:

· Visitors who have business with the Headteacher or other school staff, or who have brief contact with children with a teacher present,

· Visitors who come on site only to carry out repairs or service equipment,

· Building contractors, as children should not be allowed in areas where builders are working on health and safety grounds,

· People who are on site before or after school hours when children are not present.

Contractors

Where schools have catering, cleaning or grounds maintenance staff in schools that are provided by a contractor, it is the responsibility of that contractor to have its staff checked. NCS, for example, check all staff going into schools. This is a specific requirement contained in any contract for these services with the Authority or with schools.

The contract for the provision of the schools courier service will contain a clause requiring all staff visiting schools to have a CRB check undertaken, and evidence will be required by the LEA on a regular basis.

Should schools have any concerns about staff provided for these services then the contractors can be contacted direct to verify that all necessary checks have been undertaken.

Administrative Arrangements

The turnaround times for CRB checks have improved significantly since the agency was first established.

The average time taken by the CRB to complete a check is now in the region of 3 to 4 weeks. This does however still vary from case to case and can be influenced by the amount of time it takes Police Authorities to check against previous addresses.

The CRB has also identified that a major cause for delays in the process is the failure by applicants to complete the Disclosure Application correctly. In order to avoid delays resulting from incomplete application forms it is necessary to ensure that:

· The form is completed in black ink

· A full five year address history is provided

· All previous names are listed and verified

· All proofs of identity are listed, it is not sufficient just to rely on a passport or a photo driving licence, as much of Section X must be completed as possible. At least one proof of identity must have details of the applicant’s present address.

When the disclosure application is received in Education Personnel Services, a check is made against List 99 before the form is sent to the CRB. Schools will be notified as soon as the Disclosure is received from the CRB. The Disclosure itself is retained by EPS for six months after the date of issue in case of queries, but details are kept on a separate database as evidence that checks have been undertaken.

Where a List 99 check only has been made, the form requesting the check will be returned to the school and should be retained at school level.

I hope that the above is a helpful reminder of the process involved in requesting checks against police records. However, I should like to take this opportunity to remind schools that the CRB process is just one part of any sound recruitment process that should be in place to help ensure that our schools provide a safe environment for children in Norfolk.

Yours sincerely

Bryan Slater

Director of Education