OXFORDSHIRE County Council is being swamped with demands for more than 60 CRB checks every day as part of statutory vetting for teachers, care workers, youth football coaches and foster parents.

Councillors have called for a change to a system that has been “strangled with red tape”.

Over the past three years, the number of annual Criminal Records Bureau checks processed by County Hall has more than doubled — from about 7,000 to 15,827.

In some cases, the same individual is checked multiple times if they work in more than one role that requires CRB clearance.

The council has a team of four full-time staff and one part-time officer working to process the mountain of CRB forms and the operation is costing it £337,625 a year.

Council member Liz Brighouse said checks were needed, but the current system was failing and had to be revised.

She said: “It is an imperfect system and we are spending a lot of money on it. The CRB check is only as good as the day you do it.”

She said plans had been in place to change the system under the previous Government, but the new administration had announced its own review.

Fellow member Nick Carter said child protection was an important issue, but echoed the view that methods had to change.

He said: “The system needs to be untangled from the red tape that has strangled it over the last decade.

“I have yet to meet anyone involved with children through teaching or social work who is happy or confident with the current system.”

Bobbie Nuciforo, who is employed as a personal assistant by two adults with learning difficulties in Steventon, has been waiting since April for CRB checks for herself, and staff she employs, through the council.

Mrs Nuciforo said: “They have been incompetent and unhelpful with the CRB.

“I have had several conversations with them and they have not been helpful, and since then, nothing has happened.”

Lucy Baxter, whose two sons Mrs Nuciforo assists, said: “We are both trying to sort this out and we are highlighting the issue that the system is flawed.”

The CRB was established in 2002 and checks are required for any person fulfilling a role that brings them regularly into contact with children, young people or vulnerable adults.

Council staff process checks through the Criminal Records Bureau for school posts, including teachers, teaching assistants, parent helpers, caretakers and cleaners.

They also have to check social workers, care assistants and those involved in fostering and adoption.

In addition, the council is the umbrella body processing checks for youth sports coaches, arts organisations and day centres.

The council said policy for its own staff was that everyone should have a CRB check before starting employment. If delay risked frontline services, a risk assessment process could be carried out and procedures put in place so that employees could start training while waiting for a CRB.

However, areas where this could not happen included residential children’s homes, fostering and adoption services.