§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many staff have been employed in care homes before the Criminal Record Bureau checks have been completed; and if he will make a statement. [75572]
§ Jacqui Smith[holding answer 23 October 2002]: This information is not collected by the Department or by the National Care Standards Commission (NCSC), which is responsible for registering and inspecting all care homes in England.
506WA new recruit's employment in a care home cannot be made permanent until satisfactory Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks have been completed. However, the NCSC is sympathetic to problems caused for providers by delays at the CRB in processing checks on new members of staff and it has published guidance to care home providers. The intention of the guidance is to enable providers to employ new members of staff before the completion of CRB checks provided the new recruit has applied for a CRB disclosure; that other checks into their background have been satisfactorily completed; and they are assigned to and supervised by, an established member of staff, pending satisfactory completion of the CRB check.