Both the NDNA and the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) have expressed alarm following the CRB's admission that it has a backlog of 64,000 applications. When it began operating in March the CRB pledged to complete the Disclosure checks within three weeks, but in some cases it is taking more than four months.
Rosemary Murphy, NDNA chief executive, said the CRB and Ofsted were the most common topics of complaint among members she had talked to at NDNA roadshows across England in the past two weeks. She said, 'We know of nurseries where Disclosure applications are 17 and 18 weeks outstanding, and of managers unable to manage unless they are paired up with a nursery assistant because their checks haven't come through.
'We are asking Ofsted, as the sector's umbrella body, for a supporting statement on how people can run their businesses unless staff are cleared, as they are scared to use non-cleared staff.'
Mrs Murphy said that unless something was done soon, some nurseries might have to close. 'I don't think Ofsted understands how nervous nurseries are about taking on staff who haven't been cleared,' she said. 'People don't want to break the law. In some areas they feel they are breaking the law simply by allowing people who haven't been cleared on the premises.
'We need guidance and advice from Ofsted in a very public way, otherwise the situation is going to explode.'
Ofsted said in the next week or two it will be issuing guidance to providers on how to fill out the Disclosure forms. A spokeswoman said, 'This is the pivotal issue - filling in the forms correctly. The CRB says 90 per cent of Disclosure checks are being completed in three weeks if the forms are completed properly.'
She added, 'Day nurseries should first contact their local Ofsted regional centre, then get Ofsted to ring the CRB to give information over the phone.
The CRB will then send out a "pre-populated form", where most of the information is already filled in and can be verified. This should then be returned to the Ofsted regional office to be countersigned, then sent to the CRB.'
PAT general secretary Jean Gemmell expressed concern that supply agencies are being given written disclaimers by schools to be able to provide staff who are not yet cleared. She said, 'This is totally unacceptable and is against the DfES guidelines that have been given to agencies for implementing the CRB procedures.'
A Home Office spokeswoman gave assurances that matters would improve in the coming weeks. She said, 'The CRB is confident that it will begin to meet its published service standards by the end of this month.
'There are 50,000 Disclosure applications still awaiting processing. Up to 6,000 a day are being processed in India and returned to CRB headquarters in Liverpool.'
The spokeswoman stressed that 76,000 Disclosures have been issued to date, 'with 18,309 issued in the past week - double the output of the previous week'.
