Schools vetting volunteers at Christmas events

|PIC1|Schools are taking to vetting parents who want to help out at Christmas festivities to ensure they are not paedophiles.

The move comes ahead of the Government's new child protection rules, due to come into force next year, which require schools and other organisations to vet and register any adults who work with children "frequently".

Some schools are now taking extra precaution by vetting adults who volunteer for single events, reports The Times.

According to the newspaper, Somersham primary school in Cambridgeshire will carry out checks on two dozen parents volunteering to accompany 330 pupils to St John's church for a carol service on December 17.

Headmaster Graham McArthur said:“We rely quite a lot on parental volunteers. It is a community school and parental engagement is very important to being part of the community.

“For the carol service they will need clearance [from the banned list] which is basically something we can do on the day. You need to see details of who they are, where they live and make several phone calls.

“Parents accept it’s about safeguarding the welfare of children. They accept it only has
to be done once and it’s a necessary chore."

Another school is vetting adults volunteering to help children send their letters to Santa.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families advised schools to take a "common sense" approach.

Anastasia de Waal, head of family and education at Civitas, the think tank, said the measures encouraged a "negative relationship" between adults and children.

She said: "It can put off adults and gives children the message that either adults don’t want to be involved in their lives at all, or that adults have all got to be intensely mistrusted and you can’t have faith in anybody.”