Written question asked by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Thursday, 26 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 30 January 2006. It was answered by Maria Eagle (Labour) on Monday, 27 February 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Child Protection

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what child protection procedures are in place to ensure that community service sentences carried out in schools do not pose a risk to children.

Answer: It is important that thorough checks are carried out on those people whose work will bring them into contact with children. Some of these checks are mandatory while others are strongly recommended as good practice.The Safeguarding Children: Safer Recruitment and Selection in Education Settings guidance issued in June 2005 states that:"““Local authorities, schools and further education institutions should ensure that the terms of any contract they let that requires the contractor to employ staff to work with, or provide services for, children for whom the LA, school or FE institution is responsible also requires the contractor to adopt and implement the measures described in the guidance””"Among other things the measures described include pre appointment checks of List 99 and CRB disclosures.Under section 35 of the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000 anyone who is subject to a direction under section 142 of the 2002 Act given on the grounds that they are unsuitable to work with children is also disqualified from working with children. This disqualification is not confined to individuals in paid employment, but also includes unpaid employment, people under contract and volunteers.

Secondary information