School Safety - Protecting Children From Criminals In UK
Schools.
It is well known that following the death of two 10 year old
girls in 2002 murdered by Ian Huntley, a 31 year old school
caretaker, at Soham in Cambridgeshire in England that there were
failings in the screening system used to check the murderer's
background.
The screening system is referred to as Disclosure and a full
system of Disclosure was actually in place at the time of the
Soham murders. This system was set up to ensure unsuitable
persons did not come into contact with children but reports
showed that it failed the two girls murdered by Huntley. It
failed because information regarding Huntley's background which
included burglary, indecent assault,4 allegations of underage
sex, 3 rape allegations including one rape charge was never
passed on to the school which employed him.
The information fell through gaps in police procedures in
handling and storing data. This led to the end of the career of
the Chief Constable responsible for the force following demands
from the Home Secretary.
This was a timely warning that no matter how good a system is in
theory that the devil is still in the operational detail.
It is the system of disclosure and its' use in Education and
elsewhere which forms the basis of this short article
Legal Base
The enabling act for disclosure is the Police Act of 1997. This
is an Act of Parliament of the Westminster Government, that is
to say it applies to all parts of the United Kingdom, just like
Safety law and Employment Law.
However since both devolution and history speaks on this
Scotland with its' own legal system and Northern Ireland as a
separate entity currently run by a Westminster appointed
Secretary of State can be regarded as separate entities for the
purpose of the detailed administration and response to the law.
Thus we have three separate responses to the requirement of Part
5 of the Police Act which requires the Administrative
Authorities to set up systems to carry out such checks as may be
appropriate for persons involved with or working directly with
children.
The information derived from such checks is called Disclosure
and is described under the various Sections of the Act:
* Section 113 refers to information contained in Criminal Record
Certificates and such a disclosure is referred to as a "Standard
Disclosure". These are records considered "unspent" under the
Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.
* Section 115 of the Act refers to "Enhanced Disclosures" but a
confusion arises here as this enhancement refers to information
from Criminal Record Certificates as to both spent and unspent
convictions and this type of disclosure is referred to,in
practice, as a "Standard Disclosure".
* Section 115(8) is any information on police file which a Chief
Constable considers relevant and also includes reference to
information held centrally elsewhere about unsuitable persons to
work or have contact with young people. The information under
Sections 113,115 and 115(8) is in practice referred to as an
"Enhanced Disclosure".
Disclosure
The additional level of security of an Enhanced Disclosure is
applied to staff and others who may have access to pupils
through working or helping on a school site.
For staff working with children there is a statutory requirement
for background checking to take place before any person takes up
any role in a school.
This is meant to protect children and these checks are called
Disclosures and are carried out by the Criminal Record Bureau
(CRB) for England and Wales which is an executive agency of the
Home Office. In Scotland the checking is carried out by
Disclosure Scotland which is a service of the Scottish Criminal
Record Service. Northern Ireland has a system in place which
relies heavily on the Police Service but this is currently under
review. CRB
We will focus on the CRB working in England and Wales, the other
systems may differ n detail and it is certain that a CRB check
in England would need to be repeated in Scotland if someone
moved there to teach.
Two differences between the English and Scottish Legal Systems
which cause differences refer to the two Scotland specific legal
issues of the sentence of "admonishment" following a guilty
verdict which would be disclosed and the verdict of "Not Proven"
which would not.
The CRB searches the databases of records about people's past
records to carry out these checks. The following sources will be
checked dependent on the level of disclosure needed.
* Police National Computer (PNC) * Department of Health (DH) *
Department for Education and Skills (DfES) * Local police forces
After a Basic, Standard or Enhanced Disclosure is requested by a
person taking up a position in a school through a Registered
Body usually the prospective Employer e.g a Local Education
Authority,and by the individual themselves for Basic Disclosure.
Thus a Basic Disclosure is not really effective for Education.
A Standard Disclosure is used for the following main categories
of work:
* those involving regular contact with children and vulnerable
adults;
* those checked in the interests of national security;
* those involved in the administration of law;
* those applying for firearms; explosives and gaming licences;
* professional groups in health, pharmacy and law;
* senior managers in banking and financial services.
The Enhanced Disclosure is used for :
* those who apply for work that regularly involves caring for,
training, supervising or being in sole charge of children or
vulnerable adults;
* applicants for various gaming and lottery licences;
* those seeking judicial appointment;
* applicants for registration for child minding, day care and to
act as foster parents or carers
Since the role of a teacher.or indeed a school caretaker
involves the unsupervised access to children this is the type of
disclosure which is appropriate. . The Ministry of Education,
the DES, the DfEE and now the DfES have all in their turn
maintained a List of proscribed teachers, in various forms, over
the years.
This List, called List 99, lists teachers unsuitable to work
with children when banned for misdemeanours including sexual
offences. It is the one of the items against which CRB checks
for higher level Disclosures.
It is the decision of the Headteacher who should have access to
the pupils on the school site and this was highlighted in 2003
when the CRB was set up and was running well behind with checks.
In these circumstances Headteachers and LEAs had to make
decisions to grant access as disclosures were not physically
available.
However, recently the situation seems much improved and the
ability of the CRB to check across the board from a range of
sources seems to be a useful tool in enhancing the security of
children at school.
Safety and Employment Laws and Disclosure
We now have a problem with Disclosure recently the Health and
Safety Executive(HSE) has prosecuted, not only the employer the
Local Education Authority(LEA), but also the employee in charge
of a school site i.e the head teacher. Prosecutions under Health
and Safety Law are made in the UK Criminal Courts.
This suggests that a conviction for a breach of safety law could
have a serious impact for a Head teacher since employment offers
are made "subject to Disclosure".
The situation could exist where a Head teacher in a UK School is
convicted for a breach, resigns their post even though the LEA
itself may have been convicted as well for not giving adequate
support they enter a limbo.
Because of Disclosure any such Head teacher or other staff
member is essentially is relying on a new employer to be
understanding.
I wonder if they will be?
The situation at Soham tells us that no system can be perfect
but essentially events like SOham was what the system was
structured to guard against. It should be noted, for example,
that the CRB DOES NOT currently (2004) have access to
information from Northern Ireland nor, reliably from many
countries outside the UK
We must all maintain vigilance.