Debra Shipley, MP for Stourbridge in the West Midlands, said that while attention has focused on the backlog of teachers waiting to be vetted by the Criminal Records Bureau, private tutors and those running sporting activities are not covered by the Protection of Children Act 1999, which she piloted on to the statute book. The Act obliges childcare organisations, including those providing accommodation, social services or health-care, to check whether any applicant is on the health department list of people deemed unsuitable to work with children.
Mrs Shipley said the CRB told her just before it became operational in March that there would be no checks to ensure that organisations complied with their own findings and that there would only be sample checks to see whether employers had filled out forms properly. 'It is of absolute paramount importance that all the loopholes are closed and we put a stop to all the behind-the-scenes moves to go on covering things up,' she said.
Mrs Shipley called on the Government to toughen up child protection legislation and insist that all organisations exclude unsuitable adults.
She said, 'I'm getting whistleblowers writing to me from all over the country saying checks are not always being done.'
She said that when she raised in Parliament the issue of tutors inviting children to their homes, a Home Office minister told her that private tutors were not regulated. 'He completely missed the point. A decent private tutor might get himself checked but it's not the decent ones who are the problem, is it?'
Equally the 1999 Act made other groups such as those running youth clubs, religious organisations and leisure activities 'eligible' for checks, but they are under no compulsion to have them. Parents, she said, might be under a false impression that their children were safe because an organisation had to comply with some legal requirement, when in fact it did not.
Christine Atkinson, NSPCC policy advisor said, 'We share Debra Shipley's concerns that there are some loopholes. In addition, many organisations are not fully aware of the laws and the steps they need to take.'
But the NSPCC pointed out that the Act does not offer protection from people with previous convictions and that child abusers 'can be skilful in avoiding detection'.