Nursery World - Editor's view (371)

The weather may be getting hotter, but the crisis over delays with criminal record checks is reaching boiling point (see News, page 4). It is appalling that with the current recruitment shortages in childcare and teaching, employers are having to wait up to four months to clear new members of staff. Every day, Nursery World receives telephone calls from nurseries who are frantically worried about the situation. Do they try to use non-cleared staff in as risk-free a way as possible? Or do they just have to shut their doors, as some pre-schools are being forced to do? Some staff, meanwhile, are struggling to get by, unable to take up work until their Disclosure is completed.

Every day, Nursery World receives telephone calls from nurseries who are frantically worried about the situation. Do they try to use non-cleared staff in as risk-free a way as possible? Or do they just have to shut their doors, as some pre-schools are being forced to do? Some staff, meanwhile, are struggling to get by, unable to take up work until their Disclosure is completed.

Ofsted, as the umbrella organisation dealing with the Criminal Records Bureau, urgently needs to issue guidance for providers faced with such unacceptable delays. And the backlog must be sorted out before the new school year starts in September. This is the last thing that beleagured schools and nurseries need.

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