Some of the popular summer camps run by churches for children during the long summer holidays could be at risk because of delays in the criminal checks that must by law be carried out for youth leaders and other volunteers.
The Disclosure and Barring Service is required to process 85 per cent of applications within two weeks and all of them within 60 days.
However, the Churches' Child Protection Advisory Service, which processed 55,000 criminal records checks last year for those weeking to work with vulnerable groups in churches, youth organisations, schools, charities and care homes across England and Wales, is complaining of delays in the Metropolitan Police Service.
It is worried that these could put activites such as church summer camps at risk in the coming school holidays
Justin Humphreys, from the service, has written to Home Secretary Theresa May asking for a meeting and calling on her personal intervention into the difficulties.
He says the delays in London "are causing our members and service users significant concerns in the safer recruitment of workers and volunteers engaged with vulnerable groups."
He continues: "Most applications are processed very quickly by the DBS within a matter of a few days – and 41 per cent within one day. We are however on a daily basis receiving complaints from many organisations whose applicants' DBS checks have been severely delayed by the Metropolitan Police Service whilst they perform a background check. Most applications that get stuck with MPS take around four months to process and one application we submitted took seven months to complete, despite the applicant lodging an official complaint with the DBS stating that the delay had caused them severe financial hardship.
"The response from both DBS and the Metropolitan Police has been that there is nothing that can be done. This is clearly unacceptable and in some cases will be leading to unsafe and dangerous practice on the part of employers, who will feel under pressure to fill critical vacancies."
One recent delayed DBS check took more than 170 days – 165 days of which it has been with the Metropolitan Police Service, he writes.
"I hope you can appreciate the frustration and anguish that this is now causing the individual as even though the delays have been explained, it is still a concern that people may misinterpret their delay in working due to a DBS/criminal records check issue. Importantly it also means that organisations that are reliant on volunteers to impact their local communities are left unable to operate safely."
MPS have historically had delays but this latest deterioration of service has been on-going since last summer, he adds. "This is despite the DBS working closely with the force with an attempt to resolve their problems."

