Friday 11 September 2009

CAPITAlising on paedophile fears

On top of respected authors visiting schools being compelled to pay for CRB checks and the faults in the enhanced CRB checks system on which Bury councillor Richard Baum has been campaigning (latest posting here), BBC Radio news has just reported that parents who car-share the school run will be required by the government to be checked. It would be interesting to see the evidence on which this is based. Almost certainly the immediate result will be to increase the number of car journeys (one assumes that parents who drive only their own children to school will not be affected) increasing congestion and exhaust emissions, as people will be reluctant to pay for the privilege of helping out their friends and neighbours.

It's all more income for Capita, who run the checks.

Update: the situation is not as bad as the original short report implied. According to Liberal Vision, informal arrangements will not be affected. My question about the evidence base remains, though.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Having had dealings with the CRB agency, I can only conclude that they are totally unaccountable!

On the subject of Paedophiles, apparently, according to the Wales on Sunday, there's been a prolific Paedophile living next to a school in Caerae, originally from the Republic of Ireland, and with a conviction for sexual abuse, he wasn't known about by the police (so they say)! Since he wasn't engaged in any sort of activity involving Children or Vulneralble adults, he wouldn't require a CRB check!