GOVERNMENT CHECKS CAUSE NIGHTMARE FOR SCHOOLS (30/08/02)

Somerset Conservatives slam the Government’s incompetence in handling criminal checks on school staff.

The responsibility for checking teachers, support staff and others who work with children was taken over by the Criminal Record Bureau in April this year.

From the start there have been delays and problems and now a chaotic situation has arisen which could affect schools in Somerset.

The shortage of registered staff may result in children being sent home. Already burdened teachers may have to cope with two classes, as has already happened in Leicestershire this week.

Fortunately Somerset schools do not start until next week so our current backlog of about 1000 should be reduced and the impact reduced. This is fortuitous, rather than a result of Government aptitude.

Christopher Wolverson, Somerset Conservative Education Spokesman says, 'Labour’s incompetence has caused this deplorable crisis. The Government has failed to appreciate the consequences of introducing a new system. It has failed to organize an adequate and efficient administration to cope with checks of school staff. This has caused added pressure and uncertainty to head teachers and parents as the new academic year starts.

‘Of course such checks are necessary, but it is the bungling and complacent way it is being addressed by the Labour Government, which has caused so many unnecessary problems.

‘Even this week, additional guidance is being issued by the Government. It all adds to the challenges faced in our schools as they try to start the year positively.

‘After the Passport Office fiasco, the petrol strike, the Foot and Mouth disaster and now this crisis, you wonder which part of our life the Labour Government can muddle up next. I am confident that our schools, supported by the LEA, will minimise the disruption, but it could all have been avoided by proper and timely direction from the start.'