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A legal loophole means more than 48,000 people who work with children have not had proper criminal records checks.
There is no law to ensure those who were registered to work in childcare before 2001 - when checks were toughened up and responsibility handed to Ofsted - are assessed again by the Criminal Records Bureau.
This means most have only had the most basic of checks done by their local authority. Today, a senior child care source spoke out about the slip which could have left children vulnerable to paedophiles and sex offenders for the last eight years.
"To leave this most serious issue outstanding for eight years is totally unacceptable," the source said. "Ofsted has failed in its duty of care. It is wrong that parents are being misled. There is a huge loophole which must be closed - fast."
A spokeswoman for Ofsted said all 48,000 had been subject to a List 99 check against a register of people banned from working with children.
She said: "When responsibility for childcare regulation was passed to Ofsted in 2001, we were assured by the local authorities that appropriate checks had been carried out. As a safeguard we have carried out List 99 checks."
List 99 has already proved ineffective, however, after 88 sex offenders were left off and one got a job as a teacher.
Reader views (3)
The new Vetting and Barring Scheme will address much of the current safeguarding gaps you highlight. The introduction of the Scheme will require anyone working with children or vulnerable adults to undergo vetting regardless of how long they have been in post (i.e. all of the pre-2001 will have to be checked.
List 99 will be replaced next monday with a new list that will also include all those barred under the Protection of Children Act (PoCA), court ordered disqualification orders, the list under the Protection of Vulnerable Adults scheme (PoVA) and the Northern Ireland equivilent lists. This will remove the problems of having so many different means to be barred. The new list will be linked to a series of offences that will means that anyone convicted of sexual offences against children will automatically be listed.
- James Green, London, UK, 06/10/2009 21:18
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And yet Ofsted see fit to pick on two police women who look after each others child, and who will have undergone more checks than even I could imagine. Time for all the Ofs ted, wat etc to beggar off. Think of the money that would save.
- Alan, carlisle uk, 06/10/2009 10:44
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Children are not safe from the nanny Labour government.
Countless thousands of alleged deviants having access to children in the UK.
It could only happen in third world banana republic police state UK.
- Reuben Camara, Morecambe Compound, EUSSR, 06/10/2009 10:15
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