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ITEM EX25

EXECUTIVE – 15 MARCH 2005

POLICY ON CHECKING CRIMINAL RECORDS

Report by Head of Human Resources

Introduction

  1. A new policy on the management of the employment of people with criminal convictions has been developed, prompted by the following:

    1. discrepancies in the management of checking procedures and standards across the Council had been identified and required regularization;

    2. the Council had no previous policy on the employment of people with convictions in areas not directly involving vulnerable groups;

    3. the events at Soham Community College in 2002 which highlighted the need for the most stringent policies and practices in the employment of people with access to vulnerable groups.

  2. A working party was set up and led by the County HR Manager and involving representatives from Learning & Culture, Social & Health Care, Youth Offending Team and Environment & Economy. They have worked together to produce the draft policy attached to this report.

  3. The draft of the policy has been referred to related bodies including Thames Valley Police and Nacro, as well as staff representative bodies and the Employees and Teachers Joint Committees. Comments have been incorporated where appropriate.

    4. Development of the Policy

  4. There are numerous tensions which are inevitable in drawing up a policy on the employment of people with criminal convictions. For example, there is potential conflict between the Council’s duty and responsibility to promote the rehabilitation of offenders and its duties and responsibilities to protect the public and service users from those who may put them at risk. Similarly the need to have strict checking for individuals who may gain access to vulnerable groups may present problems for the practicalities of staffing an essential service and there is an associated cost in undertaking these checks. The draft policy, therefore, contains numerous judgements arrived at on the basis of risk assessment techniques. While it is inevitable that individual opinions will differ on many of these matters, the aim must be to produce a practical system of management which minimises risk and which is workable.

    5. Financial and Staff Implications

  5. Improvements in the checks on employees through the years have, in the main, been absorbed within HR sections. The draft policy, however, will impose additional workload on Learning & Culture where the checking within schools has been less comprehensive than in Social & Health Care in the past. To cope with increased numbers of checks in this area will require the employment of an additional HR assistant. This will cost approximately £20,400 per annum and will be re-charged to schools in line with current charges for this service.

  6. If the levels of checking are raised beyond those included in the draft policy, for example to include the following groups, it is estimated that the total number of checks will rise by 7500 and it will be necessary to increase the additional staff within Learning & Culture to 3 posts at a cost of approximately £61,200 per annum:

    • Volunteers who do not have direct access to children

    • All school governors regardless of their access to children (see paragraph 8 below)

    • Existing residents on school premises

    • Parents of exchange pupils

    • Staff without caring responsibilities in non-residential schools

    • Members of Youth Centre Committees

  1. In addition to the costs of administering the checks each Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check costs the Council £33, except for volunteers which are free. School governors are regarded as volunteers for this purpose.

    2. Further Developments

  2. Ofsted has stated that it expects governors of schools offering pre and after-school provision to be CRB checked. The DfES has confirmed that this is not a requirement as far as they are concerned and the current policy treats these governors in the same way as other governors by saying they must be checked if they have access to children based on the judgment of the Headteacher. Clearly this is a debatable point.

  3. The recommendations of the Bichard Report are still being considered by officers. Improvements to the general system of management of the employment of people with vulnerable groups will continue to be made and will be reported to the Executive in future as appropriate.

    4. RECOMMMENDATION

  4. The Executive is RECOMMENDED to approve the Policy on Checking Criminal Records set out at Annex 1 to the report.

STEVE MUNN
Head of Human Resources

Background Papers: Nil

Contact Officer: Sue Corrigan, County HR Manager, Tel (01865) 810280

March 2005

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