Emergency cover
Use contacts through your Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership to identify people with clearance who can help in an emergency. There may be local practitioners who have retired recently or switched from full-to part-time employment and would be willing to join a supply bank.
Duties
Staff with CRB clearance will soon get fed up if they feel they are doing all the 'dirty work'. The manager should share the burden of children's toileting and nappy changing and reorganise duties so that non-cleared staff do the other unpopular tasks, such as putting out the rubbish.
Staff morale
Staff can become anxious if their own applications take longer than their colleagues'. Reassure them that many people are experiencing delays and it does not indicate something untoward.
People feel better if they are kept informed. Make your office and telephone available during break times so staff can call the CRB to check on their applications.
Crisis planning
Plan what you will do if/when you have insufficient staff with clearance to operate within the rules. Will you close or continue to operate? Inform your staff, parents, Ofsted, local under-eights adviser of your crisis plan.
One playgroup asked for written acknowledgement from its local under-eights adviser of its decision to allow an employee awaiting clearance to do toileting rather than close, while a pre-school verbally informed Ofsted it was operating while staff awaited clearance.
