Protecting children from paedophiles

But, to be honest, I should really pay no attention to where the man actually comes from. The fact is that, with the way the world is going nowadays, paedophiles are everywhere. But the issue brings up a most important point. What safeguards and protection do children have under the laws of Trinidad and Tobago?

Here in Britain, schools have been accused of failing to protect children from sex abuse. Inspectors are reported to have uncovered chaos in the vetting system designed to stop paedophiles from working as teachers. Former education secretary Ruth Kelly was also criticised because serious criminals were found to have slipped through the vetting net.

A report from the education watchdog, OFSTED, claimed that schools did not know if teachers had been checked properly and had also disregarded official advice not to hire suspect individuals. Parents’ groups have expressed fury at the findings and demanded that headteachers explain why they were not complying with child safety guidelines.

At the height of a sex offenders row recently, Ms Kelly felt obliged to commission the report. In it, OFSTED said schools and councils failed to keep adequate records and could not prove that teachers had been checked. Chief Inspector of Schools Maurice Smith also criticised the failure of senior education staff to take responsibility.

He said: “Everybody thinks that somebody else is doing this. Or that it is somebody else’s job when, in fact, hardly anybody has secure evidence that any of the simplest tasks have been completed at all or when. Repeated commissions of inquiry have urged secure procedures and good record-keeping as the backbone of safeguarding vulnerable children.”

To the best of my knowledge, Britain has a Protection of Children Act, which includes special sections dealing with the vetting of teachers. But there is also something called List 99, a sensitive and confidential document whose purpose is to enable employers to safeguard against giving jobs to undesirables.

It contains the names, dates of birth and teacher reference numbers of people whose employment has been barred or restricted on grounds of misconduct or on medical grounds. If a person is restricted, the entry will show the types of employment he or she can be offered. People barred for misconduct are listed separately from those barred on medical grounds.

I have been talking to teachers here to establish exactly how the vetting procedure works. From what they tell me, the process seems long and detailed. As you do for most jobs, you first send out an application, in this case to the local education authority.

The authority is then duty bound to notify the local police that it has an application from you for a job dealing with children. The police will send a form to you, asking for personal details going back many years. You fill in this form and send it back to the police with three separate forms of identification.

The identification documents must be original, as photocopies will not be accepted. The documents will need to be in the nature of a passport, a birth certificate, a driver’s licence, proof of residence or something similar. The police will then carry out a check to see whether you have a criminal record or whether you are on List 99.

They will then get back to the local authority, clearing you for a job, or not, as the case may be. They are also obliged to send you a disclosure letter, informing you as to exactly what they told the local authority. If all is well, you will be offered a job when there is a vacancy for which you are qualified. But, rogue teachers have still been slipping through the net. So, the Government is now planning to introduce a new vetting and barring scheme for people whose jobs bring them into contact with children. An expert board, independent of Ministers, will be established and given statutory responsibility for all discretionary barring decisions.

For the first time, checks will also be made on those employed in the context of private family arrangements such as nannies, music teachers, care workers and those who have frequent access to education and health records about children. And it will be a criminal offence for a newly-barred individual to continue working with children.

Those who wish to work in jobs that bring them into contact with children will have to apply, via a Criminal Records Bureau, to be vetted by the central independent barring board. Once someone has applied to the scheme, employers will be able to do a secure instant on-line check on the individual’s current status.

If the independent board decides to bar, the individual will be informed of the basis for the decision and will be invited to make representations as to why he or she should not be barred. Where a decision is made to bar someone, the person will have the right of appeal to a Care Standards Tribunal and, following that, to the Court of Appeal.

At the moment, these are just proposals. The Government’s intention is to introduce the new scheme, subject to Parliament’s approval, in 2008. That’s still a long way away. But, at least, something is being done. I would like to think that Trinidad and Tobago too can also tighten up its laws to protect children by 2008, if not before.