The Red Tape Peril

Written by Matthew Burgess

Interesting to read that the state sector is also blaming red tape and overzealous child protection policies for the decline of foreign exchange trips (see Telegraph article ‘Foreign exchanges ‘axed over security fears’). The independent sector has been equally worried; more so, in fact, due to apparent discrepancies between Government guidance to state and independent schools on whether CRB checks are required, when a family in the UK volunteers to host an overseas pupils. Remarkably, until ISC won an important acknowledgement from DCSF last year that Government guidance was wrong, parents of children at independent schools were required to be CRB-checked, whereas parents of children at state schools were not.

That has now changed. But the Vetting and Barring Scheme, due to come in later this year, threatened to be the final nail in the coffin of exchange trips: parents would have needed to be subject to lifetime monitoring before being cleared to put up overseas children. Again, ISC (and others) intervened and Sir Roger Singleton’s excellent report, “Drawing the Line”, has restored some sanity.

A larger concern persists with the Vetting and Barring Scheme. This Government’s policy remains that, over the next five years, all adults – estimated at around 11m individuals in total – must register with the scheme if they wish to work with children (or vulnerable adults); and schools which employ adults who should be, but are not, registered will be committing a criminal offence. From November 2010, it is likely to be compulsory for all new teachers to be registered – we await the implementing regulations.  But Sir Roger’s changes need to be properly dealt with, not rushed through before the guillotine of an election.  And a change in administration might well see a further fundamental shift in policy about where the line is drawn. Even without a change in Government, the prospect of untried IT systems coping with an estimated 1.1 million registrations between July 2010 and March 2011, and the impossible position that schools will be in if their new teachers cannot get registered in time, drives only one sensible conclusion: the Government must announce a temporary stay of implementation for at least a year.

Related posts:

• A Bright Spark: ‘Gifted and Talented’ in the Independent Sector
• How much of the population actually went to independent schools: 7% or 14%?
• Special Educational Needs (SEN) and Independent Schools
• School league tables, websites and independent schools guides: How do I decide which school is best for my child?
• At last some common sense on safeguarding from Ed Balls

This entry was posted on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 at 6:11 pm by Matthew Burgess and is filed under News, Politics, Private Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.