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MYTH No.1
– If a person visits schools without being vetted, the schools’ head teachers will be prosecuted.
Sunday Times, 19 July (Daisy Goodwin, columnist, News Review page 4).
FACTS:
– If a person goes to a school to e.g. see a school play, that person is a visitor and has no duty to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA);
– If a person goes to schools to work with children e.g. to teach pupils about writing plays, read as an author from their own book, talk about fire safety or volunteer in the classroom, that person is working for schools. If they do that frequently, they will have to ISA-register.

MYTH No.2
– “charging volunteers £64 each to be vetted seems impertinent”.
The Independent, 18 July (first leader article, page 38).
FACT:
– Volunteers doing unpaid work will not pay the £64 application fee. (They might pay a small administration fee, depending on which body they apply through.)
– The fee is set to recover the costs of the Scheme.

MYTH No.3
– “Some … have suggested that clearance is required for two school visits a year” (website of Society of Authors, whose members include Philip Pullman etc., on Monday 20th July)

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