Common Single Central Record Mistakes

The legislation concerning single central records for schools and colleges in the UK was drawn up to help educational institutions safeguard the welfare of the children in their charge. By ensuring that all employees are thoroughly vetted during the recruitment process, your school can provide the maximum protection possible for each and every one of its pupils and remain in full compliance with government regulations.

The concept and aims of the single central record system are well understood by education professionals in the United Kingdom but to help you ensure that complacency does not cause standards to slip, in this article we have outlined a few of the most common mistakes that school administrative departments make with regard to the operation and maintenance of their single central records. Take note of these and you stand a better chance of achieving the goals that a well-run SCR is designed to facilitate.

Common Single Central Record Mistakes

If you can avoid the common mistakes listed below, you will be well on your way to ensuring that your SCR is properly maintained.

• Giving One Member of Staff Sole Responsibility – This might sound like a good idea in theory but in practice, you will find it much easier to maintain your school SCR if several members of staff are involved in its administration. The main problem with tasking a single member of staff with the job of maintaining your single central record is that no other staff members will have the knowledge and experience to take over the job in the event that person is absent or decides to leave.
• Not Including Agency Staff in the SCR – Whether your school carries out the necessary checks itself or, as is standard practice, relies on the agency that supplies them to perform the checks, you need to keep a record in your SCR for each temporary staff member.
• Failure to Make or Record Prohibition from Teaching Checks – Some administrators mistakenly assume that an enhanced DBS check includes a Prohibition from Teaching check but this is not the case. Separate checks must be performed for all members of staff at your school.
• Omitting the Date of Checks and Enquiries – In order to remain in compliance with SCR regulations, you need to make sure that the date of each check made and certificate obtained is noted in the single central record. These dates must be accurate: your school could run into difficulties in the event that mistakes or inaccuracies are discovered during an SCR audit.

The easiest way to avoid administrative errors and omissions where your single central record is concerned is to use an online SCR software solution that stores all data in a remote location. Such a solution will make it easy for more than one member of staff to participate in the upkeep of records and will highlight errors such as missing dates and individual checks, making them very difficult to overlook. For details and pricing information on our bespoke software solutions, please call or email any any time.