YOUR correspondent K Brown criticises Bewdley Town Council for having decided against making it mandatory for its 13 councillors to have DBS (safeguarding) checks.
He/she feels this somehow puts the children of the town at risk and goes on to compare Bewdley with Rotherham where there have been well-publicised problems.
Comparing Bewdley and Rotherham councils is entirely misleading.
The two councils are entirely different.
Rotherham is a unitary authority i.e. responsible for all local government functions with expenditure on education and children’s services of £274million and a payroll of several thousand staff.
In considerable contrast, the town council has a total budget verging on £100,000 with just four part-time staff.
Indeed the town council has no responsibilities for children and vulnerable people which might otherwise necessitate these kinds of checks.
Councillors have no formal interaction with them as part of their role i.e. they do not teach, care, supervise or have close contact with them in any way. If they did, then DBS safeguarding checks would be a requirement.
However they do not. Hence the decision.
Stephen Inman Town Clerk Bewdley
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