The Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) has called for a rational debate on safe recruitment in schools following a story in The Guardian that teachers and other staff already working at schools are not undergoing criminal records checks.

Tom Hadley, REC director of external relations, says: “Safe recruitment must be an absolute priority and supply teacher agencies are doing their bit by abiding to industry Codes of Practice and by signing up to good practice initiatives such as the DfES Quality Mark.

“It may seem ironic that all supply teachers being placed into schools on a temporary basis are subject to rigorous checks whilst similar checks are not being carried out on existing staff. However, the logistical problems of putting all staff through the existing CRB system should not be underestimated and the new vetting procedures that come into force in 2008 should provide a workable solution”.

One of the major issues identified in last year’s Ofsted report on safeguarding children was the need for more awareness within schools on the status of individual checks and for better communication between schools and supply teacher agencies.