AGENCY CLEANERS IN SCHOOLS NOT VETTED FOR CRIMES
Anger over workers brought in to help shortfall
Headteachers have been escorting cleaners off school premises this week after learning criminal background checks have not been completed.
Concerned teachers at Inchinnan, Paisley Grammar and Bargarran and St John Bosco schools have asked agency workers to leave school buildings after learning they had not been vetted.
None of the staff - parachuted in to help severely shorthanded cleaners - had the PVG certificate needed to work in a school environment.
The certificates are awarded after a Disclosure Scotland probe finds the person represents no danger to children and vulnerable groups.
But it is feared that dozens of people working in local schools this
year have not been vetted.
And when one head teacher raised the issue with senior figures at Renfrewshire Council last Friday the cleaners were merely moved to work in another school.
Bosses at Renfrewshire Council insist that was an isolated incident.
But Councillor Eddie Devine says it shows a flagrant disregard for children’s safety.
“I’m absolutely appalled,”, he told the Express.
“An isolated incident is an incident too many when it comes to children.
“If something were to happen, the person is damaged, you can’t undo the harm that’s been caused.”
“He added: “If this is true heads need to roll.
“If these workers have not been PVG checked then whoever engaged with them and put them in post must be shown the door.
“To have been then been told that these people have been moved to another school after the PVG issue was raised, that’s unbelievable.”
Union GMB said its members have repeatedly raised the issue of PVG certificates with their line managers at the council.
Renfrewshire organiser Kirsten Muat said the local authority’s failure to take action represents a dereliction of duty to children and staff who often work alone in isolated classrooms.
She said: “Renfrewshire Council don’t know who’s working in schools each day and they don’t know who’s had a PVG check and who hasn’t.
“GMB members shouldn’t have to take a courageous stand and stick their head above the parapet to make sure all children and vulnerable people in schools are safe - that’s Renfrewshire Council’s job.”
She added: “That Renfrewshire Council don’t know who in schools has had a PVG check is bad enough, but to invite agency workers into a school knowing full well they had not had a PVG check and had recently been escorted out of another primary school is shocking.”
The Express revealed two weeks ago how agency cleaners had been drafted into several Renfrewshire schools because of huge staff shortages across facilities management.
At Park Mains High School specifically, agency workers were called in after the council was left with just one permanent full-time cleaner.
A Renfrewshire Council spokesperson said: “All councilemployed day cleaners working in Renfrewshire schools are fully PVG checked.
“Occasionally there is the requirement for additional agency cleaners to help supplement enhanced covid cleaning.
“When this happens PVG checks are undertaken as standard.
“We are looking into the circumstances of these cases to ensure all required checks are complete.”
Renfrewshire Council don’t know who’s working in schools each day and who’s had a PVG check