I just received this letter from a lady who works in social care services, about the damaging effects of CRB checks in her profession:

'Modern social care services advocate that practice promotes participation and inclusion, and supports people to develop social networks and natural structures of support within their communities. However, a dichotomy exists within the social care system, which itself creates one of the greatest barriers to achieving this vision: the framework of vulnerable adult protection, and the organisational culture that it creates, means that it is extremely difficult for people to develop informal relationships within the community, outside of the regulated environment of care services.

There is minimal opportunity for service users to interact and engage with the people around them, unless strictly supervised, and attempts by members of the public to form a friendship with a person receiving care services is often looked upon as suspicious. This outlook does a great disservice to both parties: it regards the public as potential abusers, and implies that
adults who are elderly, disabled, homeless or have mental health problems have nothing to offer to another person; that one would only seek to engage with a vulnerable adult in order to benefit from them by abusing or exploiting them. I think until the system of safeguarding vulnerable adults, and the attitudes it promotes, are changed, inclusion and equality will not be achievable.'