This page gives you information about what a Criminal Record Check is and what organisations should be doing to help minimise any risk to children who attend any activity. This is information you need to know in order to help you check the staff and volunteers who will have contact with your children.

What is a Criminal Records Check?

Criminal Records Checks are carried out by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and aims to help organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors by checking candidates for jobs and identifying whether they may be suitable to work with children or other vulnerable members of society. The prime example of these are people with a conviction for sexual offences and abuse against children or young people.

For more information about the Criminal Records Bureau or Criminal Records Checks see the link below to the CRB website.

Brighton & Hove City Council have a scheme to help carry out criminal record checks for organisations in the city and support those organisations through the process. For more information about this service, Tel: (01273) 296100 or email: volsectunit@brighton-hove.gov.uk 

The value of Criminal Record Checks

A criminal record check only identifies whether someone already has a criminal conviction. The danger and risk of child abuse being so hidden in our society is that unfortunately not everyone has been caught and so will not have a criminal record. But, it is always important to carry out a criminal record checks since it will identify some individuals who are a risk to children. However, running a criminal record check together with a check of any references someone supplies an organisation is a good way of being able to identify any potential risk to children.

Always check references

As mentioned above, since criminal record checks only identify those people who already have a criminal record, ideally checking all references from someone increases the chance of knowing about any potential risks.

References can identify concerns or give you more information about someone’s behaviour and past history. By checking references you make sure that you have done all you can to ensure that someone is fit to work with children.

Organisers of children’s activities, youth groups and clubs should always try and speak directly to any person given as a reference. Writing them a letter or speaking on the email would be fine, but speaking on the phone or face to face will allow organisers to have a more detailed discussion and ask more direct questions which may reveal concerns that would not be discovered in a written reply.

As a parent you might want to check with the organiser of any activity or club whether they have carried out checks and references on employees and volunteers.

Downloads

Brighton & Hove CRB checks leaflet: This leaflet gives more information about the Brighton & Hove City Council’s Voluntary Sector and External Funding Unit CRB checks, how you can access the service, cost and contact details.

Links

www.crb.gov.uk/

The CRB is an Executive Agency of the Home Office set-up to help organisations make safer recruitment decisions. The website will provide you with an overview of the CRB and its services.

www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/

The Brighton & Hove City Council website contains more information about Brighton & Hove City Council’s Voluntary Sector and External Funding Unit, which is a registered umbrella body with the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).  This means that they can process applications for CRB checks for outside organisations nationwide, from voluntary, community and commercial organisations who do not wish to register with the CRB in their own right. As well as free advice and support for organisations and individuals the service also offers simple step-by-step processing of applications etc.