Thursday 16 July 2009

Authors boycott schools over sex-offence register

Ed: Churches note the statement from the Home Office at the end: "The new scheme means every individual working in a field that requires more than a tiny amount of contact with children and/or vulnerable adults will have to be vetted." That will include clergy visiting the elderly, etc. if our current diocesan 'push' on the Protection of Vulnerable Adults is anything to go by.

A group of respected British children's authors and illustrators will stop visiting schools from the start of the next academic year, in protest at a new government scheme that requires them to register on a database in case they pose a danger to children.

Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Anthony Horowitz, Michael Morpurgo and Quentin Blake all told The Independent that they object to having their names on the database – which is intended to protect children from paedophiles – and would not be visiting any schools as a consequence. Read more
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1 comment:

Peter Kirk said...

I thought all clergy, at least in the Diocese of Chelmsford, had already been CRB checked and so "vetted" and cleared. I presume that means they are already on the database. And the draft requirements I have seen for working with vulnerable adults are less stringent.

Meanwhile I understand that the clergy have the upper hand in this. I (a layman) was recently told by a clergyman that if I reported him for shouting at and bullying a possibly vulnerable parishioner I was the one who was likely to be investigated for clergy abuse!