Criminal checks in NHS criticised.

SOME NHS staff in Wales have not undergone criminal records checks, a report into child protection said yesterday.

The minister in charge said it was "not acceptable" that Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks were not being made properly.

Gwenda Thomas, deputy minister for social services, said the situation "cannot continue" and that vetting rules introduced this month for people working with children would strengthen the system.

During visits to NHS trusts and GP practices in April and May, inspectors found staff who had never had a CRB check. Others had not had one in years.

Some told Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) they did not know if they had an up-to-date CRB check and assumed their employers had taken care of it.

The need for CRB checks at public bodies where staff may have contact with children was stressed following the Bichard Inquiry into the murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells.

HIW said while new employees were being checked, there was no clear system in place to update records when staff moved. Many people employed before 2002 appeared to never have been checked.

Only half the GPs' surgeries that responded to a survey last October had arranged for staff to have CRB checks.

The review into NHS arrangements for protecting children was ordered in the wake of the death of baby Peter Connelly in Haringey.

Separate reports by the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW), also published today, found "variations and inconsistencies in practice".

Yesterday a Welsh Assembly Government spokesman insisted they had one of the most robust checking systems in the world.

He said: Where CRB checks are mandatory they will continue to be, regardless of the new requirements of the new Vetting & Barring Scheme (VBS). From the launch of the VBS anyone employed with vulnerable groups in 'regulated activity' will be entitled to an Enhanced CRB check."