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