Venus fly trap...

Or it was... Jonny killed it although he blamed the summer students!

This brings me back to my thoughts of neglect... they began here and continued here regarding the disclosure checks for people working with children and vulnerable adults.

I received a response from the CEO at Children 1st who was also surprised to know that the PVG Scheme was not mandatory. She's put me in touch with their policy team who have been investigating the issue and has asked for a copy of the response I received from the Minister for Children and Young People. You may remember that Mrs Campbell didn't respond to me directly and passed my query the buck to Disclosure Scotland who told me what I already know using really terrible grammar so I've written to her again. Perhaps she'll find the time to respond on this occasion. I promise I was polite and resisted the urge for sarcasm although I did pointedly express my disappointment in her failure to respond personally the first time round.

Children 1st would like to support me in my aim to make people aware that disclosure checks are not carried out either on a mandatory basis or indeed as a matter of course for a lot of organisations in Scotland. I've sent on the response I received with an explanatory email and advised that I shall be happy to meet with them to discuss it further.

I've made a Facebook page (with a gorgeous photo courtesy of the lovely MrSmith) and a twitter account which I will make live and ask anyone and everyone to share after I've been back in touch with Disclosure Scotland sometime next week. I hope my friends here won't mind sharing.

Principles are important. I don't like that there's a massive loophole in the system that leaves kids vulnerable and I like it even less that most people appear to be unaware. I intend to shout about it until everyone I know and hopefully people I don't know are aware.

Please check before you leave your children anywhere, that the staff have been disclosure checked. Whilst I appreciate that the checks will only catch out those who already have criminal records, a bigger awareness of the issue will hopefully deter those people who are not suitable to work with kids from applying for employment, either paid or voluntary with organisations who put them in a position to cause harm.

EDIT: My local councillor is my next port of call. I do hope that he pays attention in his committee meetings. If you have a spare moment... watch the video cause you couldn't actually make this shit up. The camera angle adjustment at the end is priceless!