In the latest expansion of the government’s child protection agenda, parents are checked against a database of people banned from working with children for sex offences and for other reasons. Among those affected are parents at a village primary school who have been told they must be vetted before they can accompany pupils on a 10-minute walk to a morning carol service at the local church.
Other primaries have instituted vetting for parents attending Christmas discos on school premises. Some schools require checks on parents who volunteer to walk with children from the school to post letters to Father Christmas. Parents will have to provide schools with proof of their identity, such as a passport, as well as their address, so their records can be checked.
Graham McArthur, headmaster of Somersham primary school in Cambridgeshire, said checks on the two dozen parents volunteering to walk his 330 pupils to the carol service at nearby St John’s church on December 17 were necessary — even though they will be accompanied by teachers and a police community support escort when crossing the road. “We rely quite a lot on parental volunteers. It is a community school and parental engagement is very important to being part of the community,” McArthur said.
“For the carol service they will need clearance [from the banned list] which is basically something we can do on the day. You need to see details of who they are, where they live and make several phone calls. Parents accept it’s about safeguarding the welfare of children. They accept it only has to be done once and it’s a necessary chore.”
The requests are the latest evidence of schools’ mounting anxiety over how far they have to go to satisfy the pervasive effects of the government’s child protection agenda.
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