Vetting puts parents off helping at schools

“UNPRECEDENTED levels of surveillance and control” are deterring parents from volunteering to help out at their child’s school fair or a book sale, a report has found.

The study by the Manifesto Club campaign group has shown how tens of thousands of parents were checked for criminal history after they volunteered for school activities, including listening to reading, assisting on a trip or helping at a children’s disco.

Criminal records checks on volunteers have increased fourfold, from 211,000 in 2002-03, when they were first introduced, to 875,000 in 2017-18.

Anyone employing people to work with vulnerable adults or children has to ask them to undergo an enhanced criminal records check by the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). This will list convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings held on the Police National Computer, as well as any relevant information from local police.

The Manifesto Club report – seen by The Sunday Telegraph – found there were 168,696 criminal records checks on school volunteers in 2017-18. This included 8,998 parents who were vetted for language exchanges, 2,154 for helping on a school trip, and 8,341 for listening to reading in classrooms.

Parents were asked to undergo repeat checks for different school roles. Some were “subjected to formal procedures on a par with that required for teaching staff, including undergoing interviews and evaluations for volunteer positions”. Parent volunteers were asked “to sign documents including whistle-blowing policies, child protection policies, confidentiality agreements, camera and phone policies, health and safety policies, staff codes of conduct, and equal opportunities policies”.

The report added: “In consequence, many would-be parent volunteers are withdrawing their offers of help, leaving schools short of helpers to listen to children read or take them swimming. It also means that schools have to rely upon a small pool of vetted parents, who have the time and inclination to fill in forms and read lengthy policy documents.”

Conservative MP Tim Loughton, a former education minister and now deputy chairman of the Commons home affairs select committee, told The Sunday Telegraph: “Whilst it is essential that we do not compromise child safety, parents volunteering at their own children’s school should be subject to lighter-touch scrutiny, especially where they are, in any case, overseen by professionals who are obliged to undertake full CRB checks and training.”

A Government spokesman said: “There is nothing more important than the safeguarding of children. This is why we recommend schools carry out DBS checks on any adult who will be left alone with, or left responsible for, a child while they are at school.”