At 10:33 +0100 10/9/08, Andrew Cates wrote:
Ross,
That's right AFAIK but I think we should not view CRB's as a "nice to
have, so why not".
I am no lawyer either. But the law in the UK protects people who have
come out of prison against discrimination. For this reason CRB checks
are limited to people who need them for valid reasons, as listed. Some
organisations do take a very liberal view of what "in direct contact
with children" means and hope that they will win trial by tabloid if
they get caught (since ex-prisoners do not have much popular support).
But you should not regard CRBing everyone as being "safe, just in
case". That's misuse. Overuse of CRB is as dodgy underuse of CRB
checking.
In these circumstances I would say the correct route is to appoint the
board without CRB checks but get them to approve a CRB policy with
checking as necessary before people undertake activities requiring
them.
Andrew
I was CRB checked a few years for some freelance work I did with
homeless people. Working with directly children *and* vulnerable
people requires checks.
Gordo
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