One of the features of the Labour Government was the introduction of Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) (Disclosure Scotland) checks as a Child protection measure.
Sadly the good intentions behind this have been outweighed by the negative effects. For example a significant reduction in people being willing to volunteer to work with children and the creation of a sense of suspicion and the poisoning of relationships between generations.
It is said that One of the main reasons for the formation of the Criminal Records Bureau was to reduce the risk of organisations being sued for employing convicted criminals who went on to abuse vulnerable people while in the course of their duty, as the 1990s saw an increase in the American-influenced compensation culture across Britain (Wikipedia).
One additional problem with the system is the way that each and every organisation needs to do an individual check. For example, one person checked in order to be a school governor still needs to be checked by another organisation e.g. a church youth club with whom they may wish to become involved.
This is great business for the company running the bureau, as they make a fortune, but does it help to protect the vulnerable? Well no, according to Sociologist Frank Furedi who has stated that CRB checks cannot provide a "cast-iron guarantee" that children will be safe with a particular adult. (Wikipedia) The system did nothing to prevent the Soham murders.
Maybe it's time that in the light of events that the next Government should have a long, close look at the CRB to see if it is indeed fit for purpose or just another money making machine for an unaccountable company.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment