Occasionally I get asked by parents if I have CRB clearance. As I only teach from home, and have not taught as a peripatetic teacher in a school since about 1999, I do not have the ability to apply for the CRB check as you cannot do this if you are self-employed. Can anyone think of a way around this? I think it would be appealing to parents to know that they are sending their children to a teacher who has the necessary clearance.

You can get the basic one from http://www.disclosurescotland.co.uk/

Well, I've been asked twice this year, so I thought it might be a question I'll be hearing more of in the near future.

I'll check out the link, and also look into EPTA List 99. Thank you!

Well I had to get a basic one done for work purposes, and the church has recently done a full one, so that's another way to get one - go and do some church volunteering that needs one!

Fortunately the private teaching I do in schools allows me to collect CRBs in great numbers. Should I ever get asked for one, I can produce half a dozen! I've never yet had any private pupils parent ask to see a CRB though. I'm not sure all parents even know such certificates exisit.

Hi Amanda - the parents where I live must be quite clued up on sending children to private homes for lessons.

Oh - and to reply to vectistim , I'm not sure that joining a church is an option just to get a CRB check, I'd feel a fraud!

Well I have the dubious pleasure of (amongst other things) being the child protection person, so that's why I have one.

There are some organisations that will sort this out for you but it will cost somewhere in the region of £50(= or -) . The Musician's union have an arrangement and I THINK that Rockschool do. Or they did a year or so ago anyway.
It costs more the just the disclosure as you have to pay extra for the people doing the checking/signing.

As mentioned above you can at least get a basic police check on your own - maybe your police station does it (I'm in Scotland where it's slightly different, sorry). Not as comprehensive, but it's better than nothing as it shows you've at least no 'unspent' convictions (and the concept of being dismissed for false accusations or perhaps isolated crimes in one's youth is another debate itself).

Like others, I have numerous checks for peri teaching, first aiding, support worker, and about to volunteer for a childrens charity. I don't think I would have got any being solely self employed.

I had a CRB check done for my PGCE that I have started this year and we were told that it had to be brand new, couldn't use one from a previous job as now you have to have one specific to the role you are performing. So joining an organisation and getting one through them would only clear you for working within that organisation not working from home in a different capacity as far as I understand it.

Yes, you're right I had this info too and you have to have them re done every two or three years I think. just in case you've been up to owt you shouldn't whilst still working within the same setting.

I'm surprised that you can't get a CRB check as self employed teacher. I would have asumed that anyone working with children had to have clearance especially as you are 1 to 1 with a child. Even parents who volunteer within school have to have clearance now even though they are not left alone with a child/ren so I can understand parents asking the question. The legislation puts you in a very awkward position I'd say.

One option might be to set up a limited company and work through that. You would become an employee of the company and the company could apply on your behalf.

You might even be better off, as you could take a minimum wage and draw dividends. As you would be working for many different clients theis would not fall foul of the dreaded (and dreadful) IR35 regulations.

The drawbacks are that you have to complete annual accounts and shuttle forms, and set up payroll and have a second person as a director or secretary, and deal with all osrts of other officialdom - which may not be worth the hassle.

But it is a possibility to look at.

Thanks for the ideas. I'm not keen to go down the limited company route as sole trader status definitely works fine for me. I'm not looking for the hassle of extra accounts. It is just frustrating that there are very few ways to do this when you're self employed. Hopefully some new legislation soon will address the imbalance.

I personally would feel better sending my children to a music teacher knowing that they have CRB clearance.

I needed one six years ago for my new job and it was easy. Our local police station did it and it cost about a tenner... I think.

But, excuse me for being ignorant about all this, isn't a police check as good as a CRB? What's the difference?

Steve

As a teachers, yes we're right, in the current climate, to try to get CRB clearance. As a parent, though, remember they're not worth the paper they're written on. I live in Soham where Ian Huntley and Maxine Carr committed those horrific murders, so I guess we're pretty clued up here on the shortfalls of the CRB checks! Horrible world we live in sometimes.

Does anyone know what the new legislation will be?

It is all b*llocks anyway. (This misplaced belief that all this bureaucracy makes anyone the tiniest bit safer). We all (well most of us - lack of the ability is one of the problems of Autism) have a built-in mechanism for weighing up whether it is safe to leave our cherished sprogs with some other adult.

You can learn everything you need to know in a couple of minutes of face to face conversation. It happens subconsciously - picking up subtleties of tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions, but it is a survival tool that is the end-product of millions of years of evolution, and it is very hard to fool it.

It is worth more than any number of checks by officialdom.

I'm a self-employed teacher and i got a full CRB check done earlier this year. The CRB advised me to get in touch with a teaching agency (I got in touch with Protocol Professional) and request a CRB check on the condition that i cover the admin cost (think it was about £30).

Apparently many agenicies are happy to carry this out on your behalf.


Good luck.

I agree to a point...but I have the feeling from reading this forum that parents don't always have the time to meet the teacher for much time, either they're too busy, or don't care. Also, the teachers who work in the school. How many parents have a long talk with them?

Our son's piano teacher here chats to me for ages when I pick him up. That's the way things are in Italy. But I've read a lot of posts here where the parent drops the kid off at the doorstep and collect them later with hardly a word spoken. Or mothers who are so anxious to get young Arabella learning piano (between her ballet and riding lessons) that you could wear a gorilla costume and she'd still leave you her little darling.

Don't forget either that although we've evolved an awareness of body language, tone of voice etc, we've also evolved the ability to fool others!

Steve

PS If I applied for a CRB, it would come back clean. But how do you know that I'm not really an axe yielding homicidal maniac.... who's far too clever to get caught?

well...I've got to remember never to spend my holidays in Lago Maggiore, North Italy!!!!

You can get a CRB done through membership of EPTA - http://epta-uk.org/webdb/application/Appli...ss=AccountLogon, also through Hofnote - http://www.hofnote.co.uk/ . I don't know what they charge. EPTA does not mention CRB on their website, but I know as a member that you can get it done through them.