Commenting on reports in The Times newspaper that Haringey Council has been slow to check the criminal records of teachers, as required by law, Lib Dem Education spokesperson Cllr Ross Laird said:

“This is worrying. It could be that the Council, in its bid to fill teacher vacancies, has let some teachers slip through the net, but there is no excuse for compromising the safety of the borough’s children.”

Note:

Article from The Times, 21 August 2002:

Councils and local education authorities are taking emergency measures after it emerged that some have been slow to check criminal records as required by law.

The system of checking teachers’ backgrounds has been dogged by difficulties since the Criminal Records Bureau was set up in March. The government agency, meant to provide fast information on pastconvictions for crimes such as child abuse, now has a backlog of 60,000 cases, a figure the Home Office denies.

In the rush to recruit teachers, teaching assistants and other people to work in schools, some organisations have overlooked the paperwork which would reveal a criminal past, while others have had to employ teaching staff without the full checks.

At least two education bodies in London are urgently reviewing their files to ensure that those who may have slipped through the system are chased up. The Learning Trust, which took over supervision of education in Hackney from the council on August 1, has announced a major review of its files of employees who work with children.

Haringey is also urgently chasing an unknown number of teachers and teaching staff who have not returned forms needed to process their applications for a police check. Until the arrest of Mr Huntley as a suspect brought home the urgency of the situation, these had simply been overlooked, a council spokesman said.

The problem is not limited to London, however. Rotherham and Barnsley have been forced to employ teaching and nursery staff without the full checks in order to fill staff vacancies, while Islington, Surrey, Salford and North Yorkshire are applying for criminal record checks when staff are already employed.