Enhanced CRBs for school visits
Jun. 10th, 2010 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
narcasseQuite some time ago there was a fair amount of aggravation over new vetting laws that required even well known children’s authors to obtain a Criminal Background Check before they could come into schools to give the occasional talk. I’ve not heard anything on the topic recently but just today it’s occurred to me why exactly the rule was being put into place.
The argument was made in opposition to making author’s pay for an Enhanced CRB (at a cost of about £36 as I recall) that the authors were never actually alone with the children. These were literary celebrities coming in to give class talks with groups of children as the audience accompanied by their teachers as well. There wouldn’t be any occasion for the authors to be alone with any child ever. Thus the demand for an Enhanced CRB which takes up to a month to procure struck them as excessive and at the time I agreed. But it’s only today, having been sent out to a location at the wrong time and thus making the journey back home to have lunch before heading out at a later time, that it struck me that the demand for an Enhanced CRB isn’t about time or access: it’s about intent.
Any adult introduced to school children as being in a trusted position/position of authority is viewed as holding that authority outside of school hours as well so a school visitor introduced to a class of junior school children in an authoritative capacity during school hours will be viewed in the same light should they encounter said same children outside of school. Thus the point of an Enhanced CRB is to investigate intent or at least criminal conviction at all times rather than simply to examine the possibility of an incident occurring while at a school if there isn’t adequate supervision at the time. It’s the equivalent of making sure that you’re not a convicted drug dealer so that you won’t start dealing from the however many tonnes cocaine shipments you impound on a regular basis rather than just checking that you won’t start dealing from a specific one if left by yourself one Friday afternoon.
All of which is a reasonable idea if only they weren’t asking people who might only visit a school once a year to fork out £36 a month in advance to do it.
The argument was made in opposition to making author’s pay for an Enhanced CRB (at a cost of about £36 as I recall) that the authors were never actually alone with the children. These were literary celebrities coming in to give class talks with groups of children as the audience accompanied by their teachers as well. There wouldn’t be any occasion for the authors to be alone with any child ever. Thus the demand for an Enhanced CRB which takes up to a month to procure struck them as excessive and at the time I agreed. But it’s only today, having been sent out to a location at the wrong time and thus making the journey back home to have lunch before heading out at a later time, that it struck me that the demand for an Enhanced CRB isn’t about time or access: it’s about intent.
Any adult introduced to school children as being in a trusted position/position of authority is viewed as holding that authority outside of school hours as well so a school visitor introduced to a class of junior school children in an authoritative capacity during school hours will be viewed in the same light should they encounter said same children outside of school. Thus the point of an Enhanced CRB is to investigate intent or at least criminal conviction at all times rather than simply to examine the possibility of an incident occurring while at a school if there isn’t adequate supervision at the time. It’s the equivalent of making sure that you’re not a convicted drug dealer so that you won’t start dealing from the however many tonnes cocaine shipments you impound on a regular basis rather than just checking that you won’t start dealing from a specific one if left by yourself one Friday afternoon.
All of which is a reasonable idea if only they weren’t asking people who might only visit a school once a year to fork out £36 a month in advance to do it.
