Sex offenders applying for jobs in Merseyside classrooms, new figures reveal
Checks reveal previous convictions of applicants
Lorna Hughes
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Sex offenders have applied to work in Liverpool classrooms despite having convictions for indecent exposure, new figures have revealed.
Checks on people applying to work as teachers, teaching assistants, or headteachers in Merseyside in 2012/13 and 2013/14 revealed two previous convictions for an indecent exposure with intent to insult a woman, one each in Liverpool and Wirral.
Checks in Liverpool also found a conviction for indecent behaviour, while an applicant for a job in St Helens was found to have a previous conviction or caution for wilfully assaulting a young person under the age of 16.
The figures do not show whether or not people whose checks turned up previous convictions went on to be employed. Not all serious convictions lead to people being automatically considered for a ban.
As the figures, which were revealed through an Freedom of Information Act request to the Disclosure and Barring Service, which provides criminal records checks, refer to convictions and not individuals, it is difficult to know exactly how many people the figures cover.
The National Union of Teachers said it showed the right checks were in place to protect children.
Avis Gilmore, NUT regional secretary, said: "It is a legal requirement that anyone working within a school has to have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service chec. That brings up not just convictions but also other bits of information, if it is considered to be relevant.
"Every job that is offered within education is subject to those checks and we would expect people with those convictions to be picked up.
"All the safeguards are in place so that an applicant who is unsuitable to working with children would not be able to work in a school."
The offences are on the list of those which can lead to someone being added to the barred list, banning them from working with children.
If the person has or is likely to work with children and has been convicted or cautioned by these offences, they will be added to the barring list, subject to the consideration of representations of why they should not be added to the list.
It is an offence to employ anyone on the barred list, as it is also an offence for anyone on the barred list to apply for a job working with the group they are barred from working with.
The checks in Merseyside also found an applicant in Wirral with a conviction for causing death by reckless driving and two for using racially threatening words or behaviour in Sefton and Liverpool.
Across the whole of Merseyside, 7,296 checks were run in 2013/14, with 148 returning previous cautions or convictions.
The most common types of conviction or cautions turned up in checks were shoplifting and drink driving.
Among the more unusual previous convictions or cautions held by would-be teachers and teaching assistants in Merseyside, were two convictions for fishing without a licence, one in Sefton and one in Wirral.
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