News
Ofsted report on staff recruitment checks
The letter dated 1 March 2007 reminds colleges that new guidance Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education, underpinned by new regulations, came into force on 1 January 2007.
The letter also reminds colleges of the requirement to have a single central record of checks on staff in place by 1 April 2007
New vetting and barring scheme
The Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 will introduce a new vetting and barring scheme for all those working with children and young people from 2008. Ahead of the new scheme, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills announced in June 2006 that regulations would be tightened and new guidance introduced to clarify responsibilities for safer recruitment.
New guidance entitled Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education was issued on 14 November 2006. It can be ordered or downloaded here.
The letter about the guidance sent to further education colleges from Beverley Hughes (Minister for Children, Young People and Families) and Bill Rammell (Minister for Lifelong Learning, Further and Higher Education) can be downloaded here
The guidance is a consolidated version of earlier guidance material, and covers:
- Duties for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children in education
- Recruitment and selection processes
- Recruitment and vetting checks
- Dealing with allegations of abuse against teachers and other staff.
Ofsted report on staff recruitment checks
The next stage in the process to strengthen record-keeping procedures within colleges is set out in the letter dated 31 October 2006 from Jeanette Pugh (Director of Safeguarding) and Jane Williams (Director of Improvement Group), both of the Department for Education and Skills.
The letter dated 21 September 2006, requested colleges submit figures for gaps in their records of CRB and list 99 checks to the Learning and Skills Council by 4 October 2006. That deadline was later extended to 15 December 2006
Background
In January 2006, the Government asked Ofsted to look at whether schools and colleges were carrying out appropriate recruitment checks. On 20 June, Ofsted published a report, Safeguarding Children: an evaluation of procedures for checking staff appointed by schools.
The report is very positive about the strength of commitment from everyone surveyed to safeguarding children. It does, however, also show that more needs to be done to ensure schools, colleges and local authorities keep proper records of the checks that have been made.
New measures announced to ensure proper record of staff checks in colleges
In January 2006 the Government commissioned a report from Ofsted, to look rigorously at whether schools and colleges were carrying out appropriate recruitment checks and record keeping. The Chief Inspector made clear that it is highly likely that the appropriate checks have been made, but that all schools and colleges needed to keep proper records to demonstrate that had been the case.
On 20 June 2006, Alan Johnson (Secretary of State for Education and Skills) announced new measures to tighten record keeping in schools and colleges. He outlined additional measures to ensure that schools and colleges keep proper records of the checks they had made.
Ministers Beverley Hughes and Bill Rammell have jointly wrote to all colleges outlining the new measures.
Data Sharing Project
This data sharing framework document has been written to provide a set of guidelines and principles that will enable members of the Managing Information Across Partners (MIAP) Group to share information between partners in a consistent manner. The framework has been developed as a common document for the MIAP Group with the aim of allowing the group to further develop their data sharing strategy and act as a foundation for the on-going sharing of learner and staff data.
- The Data
Sharing Project Report sets out the findings and recommendations
of work commissioned to understand the issues associated with data sharing.
- The MIAP
Data Sharing Framework outlines the Framework and Guidelines for
the sharing of data between partners of the Managing Information Across
Partners group (MIAP).