Cash for honour - well, innocence at the least

A quarter of England's adults are potentially unsafe around children, or so the ISA appears to believe. And they'll have to pay to clear their names, too

What can sixty-four quid buy you these days?

Just ignore grandad’s mumbling that when he were a lad it would have paid for a month’s groceries, two cases of Benson and Hedges and a semi-detached in Dunstable, and think about it in the here and now, rainy England, summer 2009, as I found myself doing this week. And the reassuring answer is: £64 can still go a long way.

Fifty metres, to be precise, if you’re buying a roll of 500mm-wide bubble wrap. Or 171 miles (Bristol to Manchester by rail - first class, if you book early enough). Or, if you prefer, it will procure three hours at the New London Theatre (pair of tickets for War Horse, plus interval drinks). Or - for trainee GP’s - one whole year of online learning resources.

No takers? OK, here’s an offer you can’t refuse. Very soon, if you work with children, £64 will be enough to buy you a clear conscience.

The Independent Safeguarding Authority is currently gearing up to ensure that, within 12 months, anyone working with children - even when those children are sitting comfortably in large, stringently-supervised groups - will need to be officially vetted before they are allowed through the door. It will charge every professional who requires this the grand sum of sixty-four pounds for the privilege. In return they will get a document which states that they are, officially and in the eyes of the state, not a child-abuser – well, so far as it’s possible to tell.

Countrywide, the sigh of relief going up should be enormous. Using ISA logic, the number of potential child-abusers about the place is staggering - 11.3 million to be precise, or one quarter of the adult population, those who come into regular contact with children in the course of their work. Strewth, no wonder our streets aren’t safe anymore.

Hard cash for hard times?

The ISA – a quango which sports a logo that closely resembles a surrendering figure, or more disturbingly, a Sauron-style unblinking eye – thinks this is all really very important. It has been set up post-Soham to reduce the chance of activity against children and vulnerable adults. Its proposition is clear – it exists ‘to ascertain that there is ‘no known reason why an individual should not work with these client groups’.

Although this sounds laudable enough, as the double-negative in the sentence reveals, it actually does nothing to limit children’s exposure to those who are intent on harming them. It merely confirms that you haven’t been caught yet. It checks your previous criminal history, which also means that, if the ISA had existed pre-Soham, Ian Huntley, who had no offences against children on record, could arguably have carried out his activities in exactly the same way, albeit with an ISA certificate of childworthiness sticking out his back pocket.

What it does do is a good deal to limit children from encountering interesting adults who could be of some benefit to them. Who can blame professionals from the community, peripatetic staff, or helpful parents if they figure it’s no longer worth the trouble to get involved with kids? Presumably the ISA check replaces the bloated process of multiple CRB checks if you are working regularly in multiple schools or groups - but only with one grossly over-stuffed database and the accompanying bureaucracy in all its forms. It’s a peculiarly Pelion upon Ossa approach.

Actually, the more you stop to consider it, the more you wonder if the whole thing actually has anything do with predators at all - or even children for that matter.

From our legacy of pit workers and powder monkeys to the 2007 UN report (PDF) it should be clear by now that children’s welfare has never been over-high on the agenda. But hard cash definitely is, especially in a recession. And you don’t have to be a Numeracy Co-ordinator to work out that £64 times 11.3 million adds up to a very a tidy sum thank you very much, year upon year, even if the volunteers workers in that number get their check done free. Someone out there is about to trouser the sunny side of £500 million, and they are doing it by the exploitation of what is becoming an almost irrational public fear for children's safety, kindled and fed by a media who know that bad news makes good sales.

It is a tragic fact that there will always be Huntleys and Hindleys in any society. However, they remain the exception. Making all children's workers guilty until proven innocent is an affront to the many who opt to dedicate their working lives on behalf of the next generation and have the highest standards where their charges are concerned.

Today I bookmarked the ISA link against a time when I may have to pay my due and thereby verify my innocence. But as I did it, I wondered about some of Britain’s other vulnerable adults - teachers, for instance, for whom a false accusation by a pupil might well find its way onto such an insidious database resulting in the loss of a family’s livelihood. And I wondered who might safeguard them, too.

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