The education secretary has dropped her department's insistence that all applicants for school jobs must undergo police checks before starting work.

The move came at the end of a day on which thousands of children in were sent home at the start of term because their schools did not have enough teachers with the necessary clearance due to the backlog at the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).

I was not given assurances that made me confident that the present disruption to school would not continue for some time

Estelle Morris

Some education authorities said they would ignore the Department for Education's strict guidelines and let people start work provided they were supervised.

In the early evening the Education Secretary, Estelle Morris, announced her U-turn - later apologising for the chaotic start to the new term but adding: "I'm an angry customer".

List 99 checks

In a statement, she said: "I was not given assurances that made me confident that the present disruption to school would not continue for some time.

"I have therefore decided to allow teachers and teaching assistants to work in schools at the head teachers' discretion after receiving List 99 checks. The further CRB checks would then follow."

List 99 is a database maintained by the department of people in England and Wales deemed unsuitable to work with children.

Her department issued a correction shortly afterwards saying she meant "teachers and support staff" could work at the discretion of heads.

Ms Morris added: "My whole concern is for the well-being of pupils. I could not allow the disruption to our schools to continue.

"The List 99 check will put us in the same position as we were in before the schools' summer holiday break but it is our firm intention to bring in the full CRB check when the system is able to cope.

"I have been given assurances from the Home Office that the education checks will still receive priority."

Mounting criticism

The U-turn came after several local authorities defied the guidelines and allowed unvetted teachers to take classes under supervision.

The government had insisted no teachers should be allowed in front of classes unless they had passed background checks.

But delays in the checking system - being run by the Criminal Records Bureau - have meant that 7,000 teachers have yet to be vetted.

Head teachers following the guidelines had to send children home because they did not have enough cleared staff to teach them.

'Farce'

Teachers' leaders and opposition MPs had condemned the government's handling of the situation as a farce.

Education ministers have been unbelievably inept in their handling of this crisis

Conservative spokesman Damian Green

They were joining child care experts and many head teachers in saying children are safer in school than they are roaming the streets.

Welcoming Ms Morris's change of heart, the general secretary of the NASUWT teachers' union, Eamonn O'Kane, said that under the existing arrangements it could have taken until Christmas for all teachers and teaching assistants to be cleared.

"It was obvious something had to give," he said.

"What she is basically saying is that the checks teachers would have undergone in previous years will be done."

Apology

The shadow education secretary, Damian Green, said: "We have had days of unnecessary chaos due to government dithering.

"Education ministers have been unbelievably inept in their handling of this crisis.

I'm sorry for the poor start to term

Estelle Morris

"If they had listened to heads and teachers in the first place we would have avoided this situation where thousands of children have been unable to go to school."

In an interview on Channel 4 news, Estelle Morris was pressed to apologise to people for what she acknowledged had "not been the sort of start of term I would have wanted".

"I apologise for any part that I have had in bringing this about," she said.

But she said she had only been seeking to enhance the vetting process and had been told "up to 10 days ago" that all would be well for the start of term.

She said she was the customer of the Criminal Records Bureau and of Capita, the private firm running it under a Private Finance Initiative arrangement.

But we should not get into a position of saying "private sector bad", she added.