Schools complained about delays to checks on staff

Head teachers' leaders have written to the home secretary to complain at the sharp increases in fees for safety checks on school staff by the Criminal Records Bureau.

David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, has told the Home Secretary David Blunkett that heads will be "outraged" at the increase in fees charged to check on the backgrounds of staff joining schools.

"For the past year, schools in England and Wales have been forced to deal with the difficulties caused by the CRB's inefficiency," says Mr Hart's letter.

"To increase the fees charged to such a level at a time when many schools are being subjected to a serious shortfall in funding is nothing short of outrageous."

The record's bureau "has consistently failed to meet its service standards", says Mr Hart. And he complained that the turn-around time for checks was to be lengthened.

'Rewarding failure'

"Not only are the fees being more than doubled, the bureau's service standards are being lowered! This is tantamount to rewarding failure."

The current fee for standard disclosure is �12, which will rise to �24. The current fee for enhanced disclosure is �12, which will rise to �29.

The Home Office says that the "unit costs of carrying out checks remain higher than the original fee level". And it argues that the "new fee levels still represent good value for money given the significantly increased level of protection provided by the disclosure service".

The bureau was set up to provide a more effective method of vetting adults whose work would bring them into contact with children.

But delays in processing checks for newly-appointed teachers caused widespread problems last year, including children having to be turned away from school.