The Independent Safeguarding Authority requires the registration of anybody who works in a school for four days a month – even if they are fixing the radiators or installing wind turbines on the roof. Businesses are rightly angry about what they see as a hidden tax. The fact that they have no contact with children cuts no ice, as this email we just received from a renewable energy business outlines: ‘We install renewable energy systems for example wind turbines and solar photovoltaic (electricity generation) systems to both residential and commercial customers. Many of our larger customers are schools and they are starting…

I’ve just received this email from Richard Ellam, a popular science presenter, who makes the important point about the lack of evidence for the efficacy of the CRB system. Indeed, I’ve repeatedly asked officials what evidence they have that this vetting database does any good – but they steadfastly ignored the question. ‘As a strong supporter of civil liberties of all sorts I have been following your campaign against the Child Protection Mafia with interest for some time. This issue affects me directly, as I am a freelance writer and presenter of science shows who regularly visits schools and other places to…

Media Release: EMBARGO: 00.01 MONDAY 14 DECEMBER 2009 New data released under a Freedom of Information request to the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) reveals a huge increase in the number of children undergoing vetting, before being licensed to volunteer with other children. CRB checks are routinely being carried out on children who are 13-years old or younger. · Over 3,000 children who were 13 or under have undergone CRB checks since 2002. 433 children 13 and under were CRB checked in the year 2007/8. · Since 2002, a total of 43,000 under-16s have undergone CRB checks. By law, under-16s are considered to…

This piece from the Bookseller shows that children’s authors are still against the vetting database, even though they themselves are largely exempted. The piece includes a wonderful quote from Anne Fine: “This is still a deeply pernicious and misguided business that is already damaging relations between adults and children, discouraging the varied social contacts that are so necessary in a child’s life, and creating a deeply unpleasant and suspicious society in which most of us no longer feel comfortable. If nine million citizens are still on the list, I think it goes almost without saying that list needs pruning radically yet again.”…

This article from the Telegraph is an interesting case study of how child protection rules work. Some schools are demanding CRB checks for parent visitors, because they believe this is necessary for Ofsted. Ofsted denies this, and says that there is no such rule. Over-cautious teachers, you could say. And yet this situation is emblematic of a new kind of political authority, where there is a rule for everything and you are encouraged to pre-empt – to always ask the question, ‘are we allowed to do this?: shouldn’t we have procedures in place?’ These head-teachers are not being paranoid, they are only…