Under legislation currently going through parliament, volunteers would only be checked if they have unsupervised contact with children.
The new vetting measures are outlined within the Freedoms Bill and the legislation has passed through its committee stage without being amended to address concerns raised by child protection experts.
Shaun Kelly, head of safeguarding at Action for Children, said his charity welcomed the vast majority of changes, but is calling for vetting checks to take place based on how often individuals have contact with children rather than whether or not staff are supervised.
"It can be dangerous as supervised volunteers can still have contact, arrange to see children and create relationships with children," he said. "We would want to ensure anybody that has contact with children on a regular basis is checked."
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