Freedom of Information Co-ordinator,

Civic Offices, New Road, Grays Thurrock, Essex RM17 6SL.

Date: 29/02/2012

Dear Ms Hersom,

Re: Freedom of Information request number 2838

Thank you for your request dated 28/02/2012 for the following information:

CRB Checks and previous criminal records

This FOI relates to any professional employed by the LA that has

access to children such as children’s social workers, health

visitors etc.

1. Would any convictions, cautions, criminal activity or police

records etc. recorded against a person in any county, other than

the UK, show up on CRB checks? If so what country(s) share records

with the UK CRB Records?

2. How many social workers / professionals do you employ that have

got a different birth place to the UK?

3. How many social workers / professionals do you employ that have

a different country of residency previous to becoming resident of

the UK?

4. Have all social workers listed in Q2 & Q3 had CRB checks made

against them?

5. Can you confirm that CRB records / checks only go back to when a

person arrives in the UK?

6. Can you confirm that past criminal convictions, police records

etc. from other countries will or will not show up on CRB checks?

7. For all social workers / professionals in Q2 &Q3, what

procedures / safeguarding measures have the LA put in place to

ensure that social workers / professionals have no previous

convictions, cautions, criminal activity or police records, fraud

or anything that has been made against them in their birth country

or previous country of residence that may or may not jeopardise the

safeguarding of children or adults?

8. How does the LA contact other countries for social workers /

professional’s previous records? What are the time scales?

9. With regards to Q8, if the LA does not get a response from the

country which the records are sought, would the social worker /

professional be employed by the LA or would employment only

commence when the LA has evidence that social workers /

professionals have a clean record.

10. If this FOI has highlighted concerns or failing of obtaining

previous records from birth countries / previous residence of

another countries would the LA seek to amend policies to ensure

social workers / professionals have clean records.

11. Does the LA carry out random drug tests or alcohol tests on

social workers / professionals? Were there any to be found negative

and what were the outcomes?

Section 10(1) of the Freedom of Information Act requires that we process your application within 20 working days of the date we received your request, therefore we will respond to you by 28/03/2012. If we are unable to meet this deadline we will inform you of this and the reasons why.

If the information is already available to you through the Council’s publication scheme we will advise you of this. We will advise you whether we hold the information you have requested and if you are able to access it. In some cases where exclusions apply we will not be able to provide you with the information you have requested. If we are unable to provide the information you request we will contact you and inform you of the reasons why. In some cases there may be a charge for the information you have requested. We will keep charges to a minimum and will inform you as soon as possible of any charges that apply.

If you are unhappy with the Council’s response you can make a complaint via the Council's complaints procedures and this will be looked into. If you are not happy with this decision you may then appeal to the Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely,

LABone

Linda Bone

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator

Telephone (01375) 366260

Macro FOI.acknowledgement.letter

Freedom of Information Co-ordinator,

Civic Offices, New Road, Grays Thurrock, Essex RM17 6SL.

Macro FOI.acknowledgement.letter