14th March 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Parents have been warned about the need to teach their children about the risk from inappropriate adult contact. Reported on the BBC, Lord Henley has said that the current system is too bureaucratic, and that the requirements for someone to be CRB checked should be relaxed when a teacher or another responsible adult is present. Henley added that essentially it is the responsibility of parents to educate their children about what is appropriate and what isn’t when they are with an adult.
When the coalition government was formed they immediately curtailed the planned changes to the Criminal Records Bureau processes, which would have made it even more laborious and costly for someone to obtain a CRB disclosure. The government is now taking steps to reduce the red tape further, by changing the guidelines regarding people who need to be CRB checked.
There was opposition to Lord Henley’s suggestions. One argument is that the people from whom we are trying to protect children are ‘manipulative and clever’, and that they use the trust gained when supervised with children to take advantage of a child when not supervised.
Everyone appears to agree that the amount administration currently involved with CRB disclosures need to be reduced, but the best way to do that is disputed. Parents should take responsibility for educating their children about appropriate adult conduct, but it’s argued that many parents implicitly trust schools and social clubs because of a perceived amount of vetting.