SCHOOL staff who have not been cleared with the Criminal Record Bureau to work with young people will not be allowed to start work this week.

The list of those involved includes teachers, classroom assistants, lunchtime supervisors, after-school club staff and volunteers, caretakers, technicians, first aiders, office staff, volunteer helpers, cleaners, gardeners, crossing patrols and new members of governing bodies.

Somerset County Council is following Government instructions issued last week and revealed that the GRB had still not checked more than 1,200 staff across the county.

The situation is reflected countrywide and follows the CRB taking over responsibility for running the disclosure clearance process.

Following the murders of schoolgirls Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in Cambridgeshire there has been a public outcry to ensure those working with children are fully checked out.

The county council's deputy director of Lifelong Learning, Jon Rose, said: "From the outset last April the education department, in common with other local education authorities, experienced difficulty with the CRB's administration of the service.

"The difficulties were, on several occasions, brought to the attention of the CRB who perceived them to be essentially teething problems."

But Mr Rose said that of the 3,469 forms sent to the CRB for disclosure since April there were still around 1,200 outstanding.

"The DfES has said it is putting pressure on the CRB. It claims emergency arrangements now adopted by the CRB will clear the backlog by the start of term. Clearances are reaching County Hall daily - but we cannot be sure this will happen and are issuing information and instructions to schools on what they should do.

"In the last few days the number of clearances we have received has increased and the situation is improving. The education department has a team of extra staff ready to deal with a sudden surge and we are geared up to ensure clearances are forwarded to schools without delay."

But Mr Rose warned that if the checks remained outstanding children could be left without teachers unless the authority could find enough supply staff to stand in.