[holding answer 27 March 2009]: The number of notifications sent to schools inspectorates since April 2005 is 87. These relate to individuals who resigned or were dismissed from independent schools because they were considered unsuitable to work with children. Details are given in the following table. The hon. Member will recall from previous answers that in the case of maintained schools, Ofsted can approach the local authority concerned in respect of notifications from its schools.
Inspectorate 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Total ISI 5 27 17 16 1 66 Ofsted 2 4 7 7 1 21 CSCI1 2 4 1 0 0 7 1 The seven referrals made to the former Commission for Social Care Inspection (now Ofsted) were also referred to the relevant education inspectorate and are thus included in the totals for ISI and Ofsted above
Under the new vetting and barring scheme a supervisory authority such as Ofsted will be required to inform the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) if it has information that a person poses a risk of harm. In return, the ISA must inform them when it bars someone who is supervised or registered by them.
Where employers (including independent schools) 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 or, from 20 January 2009, the ISA. In addition, the police also refer cautions and convictions, including for those who have been working in educational establishments in accordance with Home Office Circular 6/2006 (The Notifiable Occupations Scheme).
Identifying how many referrals and letters of notification were received from maintained schools would require detailed checks to be made of individual case records and this would incur disproportionate cost.