'Passports' for childcare staff

Wednesday, August 28, 2002

The UK's largest teacher recruitment agency has called for the Government to introduce a central register of all childcare workers, where every individual who has been cleared to work with children would hold a 'passport', renewable on an annual basis. The up-to-date register would be on the internet. Ian Penman, chairman of TimePlan, wrote to home secretary David Blunkett last week to urge the introduction of a new registration system similar to that used in the US. TimePlan is the agency that allowed Canadian teacher Amy Gehring to continue working in schools after police warnings that she posed a risk to children.