Background checks for teaching a 'painless process'

Undergoing background checks for a teaching post in the UK need not be a daunting process, it has been suggested.

A spokesperson for the Training and Development Agency for Schools argued that there is nothing to fear from the process as long as the applicant has "nothing to hide".

And, he added, the actual process of filling out the forms is "painless".

"It's just a requirement that everyone has to go through, whether you're a caretaker or whatever and it's just par for the course really," he noted.

Anyone who wants to work with children or is applying for teacher training must undergo the checks, which were introduced after school caretaker Ian Huntley killed pupils Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in Soham in 2002.

Last year, 20,000 people were prevented from working with the vulnerable, according to Home Office figures published in June 2008.