police cautions and careers in furthereducation...

[bigwilko]

I am currently employed in the financial sector, but had harboured a desire to move career in a few years time to lecturing in further education in a maths based subject ... unfortunately, i have recently received a police caution for posession of a class A drug ..... and I have been informed by friends that this will now prohibit such a future career move, as any background check will show this ...... i understand that this applies to working with any "vulnerable" people or those under the age of 18 ... Can anyone clarify this ?, or does anyone know whether individual cases can be judged on their merits ? .... I fully accept that i have "made my own bed" , but feel that it would be harsh to be precluded from this based on one very silly mistake. I would appreciate any input ...Many Thanks

[Buenchico]

There are very few jobs where a conviction or caution automatically bars someone from employment. (To the best of my knowledge, the only example in the education sector is that nobody with a conviction, or caution, for a sexual offence against a child is permitted to work in a school, irrespective of the age or sex of the children in that school). Otherwise, it's entirely at an employer's discretion as to whether they regard a conviction, or caution, as a reason for refusing employment.

FE colleges normally accept students from the age of 16, so all employees will be required to undergo enhanced CRB checks, irrespective of the ages of the students that they'll directly come into contact with. For the purposes of such a check, convictions are never regarded as spent. (Cautions can't officially become 'spent' anyway but they'll still show up on a CRB check).

Your problem is the litigious nature of modern society. Employers are extremely careful to avoid any possibility of legal action against themselves. If a college's board of governors saw your application for a job, they'd have it in the back of their minds that you might get their students involved with drugs. Worrying as that would be, they'd be even more concerned that they could then be sued for their negligence in appointing someone with a known connection to drugs.

In theory, your caution doesn't prevent you from obtaining employment within FE. In practice, it almost certainly does.

Chris