Police Background Checks.

[Lisa O`Brien]

Just having a moan,really.My son,who is doing a Health and Social Care HND has to have an AccessNI Enhanced Disclosure Check from the police. It allows him access to work with children and vulnerable adults. Has to be re-applied for every year. Well the college paid for everyone`s online application months ago. No post with the certificate in it arrived.  Waited and waited and no letter. So my son got his Access code from the college. I phoned them up today while my son was at college.They are due to begin placements at the end of this month,and it is imperative he has it,as he wants to do a 2 week placement in a nearby primary school,which the Headmaster has agreed to,upon condition he produces the certificate. [Apparently as long as they have the code they can check online if they have a criminal record or not,but I personally think it`s better if he has the actual certificate in his possession to last him the whole year]. Sean checked online and it said they issued the certificate to him in May. On the phone to AccessNI. We live at house number 21. They sent the certificate to house number 2. Now have to wait for the neighbours to get in [and the man is that pervy neighbour of mine I was talking about in another thread on here.] The chances of the neighbours,who don`t know our names,keeping hold of a letter addressed to someone they didn`t know is remote. They more than likely threw it away. So it will have to be re-issued all over again. Meanwhile, his placement dates are getting nearer. Grr. Rant over.

[alison]

Oh he..ck.  Of all the lousy ...

[Lisa O`Brien]

Of all the addresses to mistakenly send it to as well. THAT neighbour of all people. I`m not saying the neighbour would pretend to be Sean O`Brien and use Sean`s background check for his own advantage or anything. But even so. Being sent to that`s man`s address by mistake. OMG.

[Lisa O`Brien]

I wrote a note to the neighbour,explaining it had mistakenly been sent to their address. The wife[she`s lovely] has just knocked on the door. She remembered receiving the letter a couple of months ago and wrote "Return to Sender Address Not Known"  on the envelope and posted it back to AccessNI in Belfast. No wonder he never received it. Will have to get back on the phone to them tomorrow now and explain his certificate was sent to the wrong address and the person living there posted it back to them. Flipping heck.

[Legseleven]

Why on earth did your neighbour return it - surely she knows yours and Sean's names?

[Lisa O`Brien]

Why on earth did your neighbour return it - surely she knows yours and Sean's names?

No,she didn`t know our names. They`re not  next door to us. Their house back garden faces our house back garden. We are around the corner from them.

Edited November 4, 2015 by Lisa O`Brien

[taxi4ballet]

We've been here for years, and know most of our neighbours by first names only. The only people we know the surnames of are the ones we've take in parcels for on occasion.

 

How frustrating for you and your son Lisa, hope things can be sorted out quickly.

[Lisa O`Brien]

I was on the phone to them this morning. They are going to re-issue him with a new certificate,sent to our address. But because he made the application online,and apparently the online application said house number 2 ,that cannot be changed and while the envelope will say house number 21,the actual certificate inside the envelope will still say he lives at house number 2. Actually might not be too problematic for his first placement at the primary school. The woman whose house the letter was sent to [number 2] works at the same school. She told me that she has to have her own police check certificate sent out every year too. So if the Headmaster queries the house number,it can be pointed out to him that one of his employees actually lives at the "wrong" house the certificate says,and anyway,i`m sure Sean can explain the mix up if asked about it. We are just both relieved he can go ahead and do his work placement,once it arrives anyway ! [And at least he [meaning me] hasn`t been charged £30 all over again for another one.

[Lisa O`Brien]

At first when it never arrived I was actually concerned that he had been in trouble with the police for something and hadn`t told me ,and that was the reason. I kept on saying to Sean,if there`s something you need to tell me then tell me because I would rather know. I was imagining he and his friends had been stopped by the police and had had "wacky backy" on them and he was given a caution or something. He was quite indignant that I didn`t believe he had done nothing wrong. When you telephone the AccessNI number,the recorded message says "If you applied online before April 2015 and have still not heard from us then please contact the Police Service of Northern Ireland". I was thinking he had done something and they had flagged it up and that was the delay. Actually when he was 14 a whole group of them from the same school were congregating in an old man`s field to smoke. He took objection and called the police. There were about 25 of them and every one ,including Sean,had their details taken down by the police. Instead of calling out to each child`s house individually,the children and their parents were summoned to school. The police were there and they spoke to us all as a group. Saying ignorance of the law is no excuse etc. They and us parents were all told that each and every child has now been officially cautioned. If they do ANYTHING else at all they will get a criminal record next time. That was their one and only last chance. I had serious words with him,of course. But I did however,as did some of the other parents think ,that giving them all a caution just for congregating in a field was a bit harsh. But there you go. He knows ,especially for the type of work he wants to do,that just one slip up will now get him a criminal record,and he can kiss goodbye to working in Health and Social Care. [Mind you i`m a fine one to talk. I was given a police caution for Tweeting the names of those 2 women involved with the Lost prophets singer in abusing their own children. Still haven`t heard anything about that. I`m hoping, because there were thousands of us Tweeting their names,that we have all "got away with it",so to speak.]

Edited November 4, 2015 by Lisa O`Brien

[Legseleven]

How odd, Lisa, that the lady at number 2 works at the same school! At least she can back up Sean's account if asked 

[Lisa O`Brien]

His police background check arrived yesterday. Relief.