Clause 8
Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Bill [Lords]
9:45 am
Annette Brooke (Children & the Family, Cross-Portfolio and Non-Portfolio Responsibilities; Mid Dorset and North Poole, Liberal Democrat)
Further education colleges are included in the Bill. At present, they are in the controlled activity area, presumably on the basis that a large number of further education students are over 18 years old. However, we are on the cusp of a change with the 14 to 19 agenda, and children will move interchangeably between colleges and schools, so there should be a regulated activity aspect. For example, the school caretaker or the college site manager should be subject to the same degree of checking and barring as those in regulated activity. A lot of the Bill stems from the Ian Huntley case when a school caretaker was not subject to the same checks as a school teacher. With a controlled activity, the catering people, site managers and others in a further education college will be treated differently from those at a school. I should like the Minister to respond to such matters. I am talking about the difference of treatment of ancillary workers.