Attacks on School Vetting Chaos

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 4th Sep 2002

Local schools face serious disruption because of delays in checking school staff for criminal records. A government circular tells governors that they should follow guidelines, which almost certainly means many children will be without teachers.

Vincent Cable said that, "it is completely unacceptable that the start of the school year should be wrecked by the bureaucratic incompetence of a government department."

"Unfortunately anyone who has dealt with other government agencies linked to the criminal justice system and the Home Office will know that they are totally incapable of processing large numbers of applications quickly and efficiently."

"For the government to set a deadline for the completion of the exercise for the beginning of the school year was ludicrous and unrealistic."

"Vincent Cable was also very critical of the "panic" induced by the murders in Soham and urged a methodical approach to checking criminal records while schools get on with their work: "the suspects in that terrible murder case could not have been stopped by checks of this kind in any event. And there will be thousands of overseas teachers whose checks depend on the goodwill and competence of overseas governments and will never be secure. There needs to be a sense of proportion.

Sending children home from school is not a sane response to delays in the vetting procedure. Provided schools are frank and open with parents about their progress in checking records I see no reason why they should not continue as normal".