Six weeks after the start of the school year, almost 500 teaching staff are still waiting for criminal record checks to be completed.

Schools in Wales were forced to cancel classes in September because of a backlog of more than 700 cases.

Blunkett: Running of CRB led to "chaos"

The National Association of Heateachers (NAHT), has described the figures as "disgusting".

Some local authorities are allowing staff who have not been fully vetted into the classroom, others are not.

The start of term saw schools forced to cancel classes.

At one school in Porth, 177 children were told to stay at home because new staff still had not been vetted.

Six weeks on, and with half-term about to begin, at least 469 teachers are still waiting for their full checks to be completed.

Deadline

But it is not just teachers who are still waiting for clearance to do their jobs.

Hundreds of classroom assistants, ancillary staff and volunteers are still not fully vetted.

Last month, Westminster Education Secretary Estelle Morris was forced to make an embarrassing U-turn on previously strict guidelines, telling schools that staff could work with only part of the checking procedure having been completed.

We had the fiasco in August where head teachers didn't know which of their staff would be able to take up their posts

Karl Davies, National Association of Headteachers Wales

The government has given the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) a final deadline of 30 October to complete outstanding checks.

List 99 - a system of background and criminal checks which began in March this year - gives guidance to employers.

An assembly spokesperson said: "The Criminal Records Bureau checks on teachers and staff are for the Home Office.

"However, the assembly issued instructions early in the new term, which said that as long as the List 99 checks had been carried out the school staff could take up their posts while the full checks were being carried out.

"A fast track system was set in place for the List 99 checks. We have had no calls indicating that there is a problem and there are no schools closed in Wales."

Home Secretary David Blunkett said the running of the CRB had been "unacceptable" and had led to "chaos" and the government has sent in a team of trouble-shooters.

The CRB has massively increased its staff, using a company in India and 200 workers from the passport office to help clear the backlog.

But with an estimated 100,000 checks still waiting, it could be many weeks before the backlog is cleared.

Warnings

Karl Davies, director of the NAHT in Wales, told BBC Radio Wales the organisation had warned Estelle Morris back in the spring when the checks were announced that her timetable was "unrealistic".

"She didn't heed these warnings so we had the fiasco in August where head teachers didn't know which of their staff would be able to take up their posts," he said.

"We were promised in August twice that special measures were being taken to make sure that everyone would be cleared in time.

"That didn't happen and we still now have 500 teaching staff, without I don't know how many ancillary staff, still not having been cleared.

"The disruption that this causes for schools, teachers and head teachers and this is on top of the hassle they have all had with the fiasco over the A-levels this year.

"It's just not acceptable that at the beginning of term, when pupils and teachers should be settling down and beginning term, this disruption should be caused."