January's paedophiles in schools scandal took the Government bysurprise. And ever since, ministers have been keen to show they're incontrol.
As a result, the Department for Education and Skills ordered Ofsted toinvestigate whether schools were carrying out recruitment checks andkeeping proper records. The schools' watchdog issued its damning reportlast week (Children Now, 21-27 June). It revealed that 55 of the 58schools surveyed failed to keep a record of the checks. That makes itimpossible to spot when checks need updating, meaning staff who commit asubsequent offence can go undetected.
Review of records
The DfES responded with vigour. Education secretary Alan Johnsonannounced new measures to ensure all schools and local authoritiesreview their records and can demonstrate to Ofsted that their recordkeeping is robust. These include making it mandatory for all localauthorities and schools to carry out Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)checks on all overseas applicants who work in education and to seekadditional information about their conduct.
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