Hundreds of charity, voluntary and service organisations across Britain face being caught-up in the back-log of staff checks disrupting the start of school autumn terms.

Delays at the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) have led to teacher shortages in many schools - with some children being turned away on their first day.

And now there are fears that hospitals, social services and charities may also be affected.

Groups subject to CRB checks include

Taxi drivers Social workers Scout and Brownie leaders Children's charity volunteers Childminders Carers for the elderly Carers for the disabled Children's dance/riding/sports coaches

The CRB does not only vet school staff, but any organisation which deals with children or vulnerable adults.

This can include anything from children's charities and social workers, to taxi drivers, Scout and Brownie leaders.

A spokeswoman from the Department of Health told BBC News Online: "We are monitoring the situation very carefully to ensure there is no adverse impact on frontline delivery.

"We are working with the CRB and others to consider ways of ensuring checks are completed as quickly as possible.

"Our priority is to ensure continuity and delivery of safe health and social care services."

The Association of Directors of Social Services (ADSS) said the delays had hit local authorities badly - although the situation was now improving.

A spokesman added: "It is actually getting better. It has been bad but clearly the amount of resources the government has been putting into the CRB has meant the situation is improving."

The Scout Association told BBC News Online its applications were currently taking about four weeks to process, a week longer than it had expected.

However, a spokeswoman said the increased time was not particularly affecting the organisation as it had anticipated some initial teething problems with the CRB and had its own safeguards in place.

Some taxi drivers' applications are delayed

She said: "If a volunteer has been through our checking process they are allowed to operate in a supervised capacity while their application to the CRB is going through.

"Obviously, we are always in need of volunteers and would not want things to get worse, but at the moment, to be fair, it is not affecting us too much."

The NSPCC said it had had no problems with the process.

But a spokesman for the Licensed Taxi drivers' Association said he had heard "a fair amount of anecdotal evidence" that there were hold-ups in the registration of new drivers.

Driver delays

He said existing drivers awaiting clearance were given a "cover note" to allow them to drive, but newly-qualified drivers were being made to wait.

A spokesman for Transport For London said the CRB backlog had caused some delays in processing licence applications for London black cab drivers.

But he said the delays were reducing and it was taking the expected two to three weeks to process applications.

The CRB has cut the urgent checks backlog from 9,600 to about 8,000 since Sunday, the Home Office said.

And the tally of applications that the CRB said were taking longest to check - those containing "errors" - has fallen from 7,000 to 5,500, while the remaining 2,500 are being fast-tracked".