I read with interest, this scathing critique of the new Vetting and Barring Scheme being launched (and postponed) in the UK this year by the new Independent Safeguarding Authority.

If you are one of the 11.3 million people who might, in the course of your work, come into contact with children or “vulnerable adults”, you will be paying for the privilege of being vetted by this new authority. Its net will catch almost everyone in the NHS, even cooks. It will encompass accountants and board members of charities. It will include anyone generous enough to offer work experience to a teenager, or a bed to a foreign-exchange student. It will vet a quarter of the adult population.

The article outlines the huge implications of this initiative while pointing out some obvious flaws. The conclusion is simple:

Common sense protects children better than bureaucracy. It’s like crossing a road. You can never predict accurately which cars will stop. You have to teach children to make their own judgments about when it’s safe to cross. Similarly, you have to teach children to judge whom to trust and what constitutes strange behaviour. The vetting schemes that we are creating tell children to suspect everyone, and encourage adults to retreat. So children who are actually in trouble have fewer and fewer people to turn to.

Thanks toTim Abbott for this one.