Criminal Background Check Requirement in UK Criticized

As Britain moves towards running criminal checks on everyone who volunteers with children, a civil liberties group has warned that the step could strangle the nation's youth groups.

From late 2008, every adult who volunteers in any sort of youth-related activity - such as coaching sports teams or after-school clubs - will be compelled to undergo a criminal records check.

The government is already encouraging this practice, and when the new regulation goes into force, anyone found working with children without having being checked will face a $10,000 fine.

Across the country, dozens of organizations that work with children are currently vetting their members, including the Football Association, which is reportedly checking around 20,000 coaches and referees in youth soccer leagues.

Passed two years ago as a reaction to a number of child care scandals rocking the country, the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act has been hailed by supporters as a law that will make parents feel more secure.

But opponents say it will chill the interaction between adults and children. It will also mean that up to one-third of British citizens will have to be vetted by the government.

The Manifesto Club, a civil liberties group that campaigned against the legislation, released a report this month on how child protection laws have affected one particular sector of British life - model-airplane flying clubs.

Currently, there are about 780 of these clubs, with around 36,000 members. The Manifesto Club said that policies brought about to protect children are preventing the members from participating.

In interviews with club coaches and members across the country, the Manifesto Club found that some groups, which previously opened their doors to children, have now shut them for fear of trouble.

At other clubs, adult fliers have reportedly refused to help out children during flying sessions if their parents are not present.

The British Model Flying Association (BMFA) "strongly suggests" that affiliated clubs vet those adult members who supervise children by requiring written references and criminal record checks.
As a result, what had once been a fun, challenging activity for young people was slowly being closed off to them, the civil liberties group said.

Manifesto Club spokesman James Panton told Cybercast News Service that the new child protection laws won't end youth clubs in Britain but have put a chill on what has been a natural and healthy interaction between adults and children. "Adults are certainly insecure about whether they're allowed to intervene when kids are misbehaving and also paranoid about how they're seen when they interact with people," he said.

BMFA President David Phipps on Tuesday downplayed the Manifesto Club's report, saying that while a small minority of members had been critical of the new policies, the vast majority had accepted them without any problem.

Phipps said the number of non-adult members in model-flying clubs was actually increasing and that many clubs were carrying out the checks in order to take up new members.

A Home Office spokeswoman said Tuesday the fears raised by the new report were baseless. "There will be no reason for hobby clubs to turn away under 18 year-olds when the new vetting and barring scheme comes into effect," she said. "Quite the reverse, because the new system will be both easy for clubs to operate, and yet offer the protection that parents want and children deserve."


Kevin McCandless
20 April 2007

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