Where employers in the education sector have ceased to use the services of a person because they consider that person is unsuitable to work with children, or they would have ceased to use the person’s services where the person has left their employment, they are required to refer information to the Department. In addition, the Police refer to the Department cautions and convictions for those who have been working in educational establishments in accordance with Home Office Circular 6 / 2006 (The Notifiable Occupations Scheme). Therefore, school staff and others working with children are referred to the Department for a range of reasons including convictions or cautions for a wide range of offences, allegations involving various forms of misconduct, and referrals on the grounds of ill health.
The total number of all types of referrals received by the Department over the 12 months until 31 December 2006 was 2,784. Identifying how many members of school staff in each local authority had their employment terminated because of inappropriate relations with a student in the last 12 months would require detailed checks to be made of individual case records and this would incur disproportionate cost.