Some education authorities are making contingency plans in case the backlog of character checks on staff means schools run into problems at the start of the new term next week.

Some schools in Leicestershire - where term has begun already - have had to send pupils home because of the backlog of checks at the Criminal Records Bureau.

A BBC News telephone survey of other education authorities reveals a mixed picture - with some reporting no problems and others fearing the worst.

Extent of the backlog

Out of about half the 150 local education authorities in England who were able to give information to BBC News researchers, a majority seem to be confident or at least hopeful that they will not have any problems.

But Kent says it is waiting for checks on 600 new staff - it is leaving it up to individual head teachers whether or not to let them work.

Bristol has 198 clearances outstanding, mostly for teachers.

In the four days to Thursday, just 10 were completed.

The new term starts on Wednesday and the authority is making contingency plans to provide temporary cover.

Derbyshire has 200 school staff who must be cleared before starting work and it does not think these will be done in time.

This should not mean any schools closing but "some disruption is likely".

Touch and go

Durham has 384 applications outstanding, mostly of classroom staff, and has sent a priority list of 246 to the CRB.

The new term starts on Wednesday and the authority says it cannot guarantee that there will be no disruption, and cannot rule out school closures.

North Yorkshire has more than 300 incomplete checks but is hopeful all schools will open normally on Wednesday.

Successful recruiting

Northamptonshire is feeling a victim of its own successful recruitment drive - which means it has one of the lowest staff vacancy rates, but 268 teachers and 341 support staff still needing to be checked.

It hopes all schools will open.

In Poole, more than half the borough's schools are awaiting clearance for one or more teachers - but the authority thinks they should get these by the time they start back on Wednesday.

In Wolverhampton, 200 of the 250 outstanding checks involve classroom-based staff and these have been prioritised.

The CRB has undertaken to complete all clearances by next Wednesday - but the new term starts on Monday.

Trainees

Of the outstanding checks, many relate to teachers who are newly qualified, or from overseas.

Newly-qualified teachers may have been checked already before starting their training.

The rule now is that they all must be, through the new Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).

But before the CRB began work this spring, it was up to individual police forces whether or not to run checks on trainee teachers - and, according to the Department for Education, some refused to do so.

In their cases, the CRB checks could not be applied for until they were being considered for jobs starting this autumn - and became caught up in the general backlog.

Overseas checks

The bureau does not run checks on teachers coming to England and Wales from overseas.

The Department for Education said it was up to employers to check the background of such staff before taking them on.

It was particularly important to take up references, a spokesperson said.

To check on whether someone had a criminal record, an employer should ask their local police force to check with their counterparts in the teacher's home country - but police in Britain will not make enquiries themselves about someone's background.

"The level of information disclosed varies from country to country: some are complete extracts from the criminal record, others are partial," the official guidance warns.

In some countries, individuals can obtain a "certificate of good conduct" or the equivalent - but practice varies considerably.