With A Sense of Inevitability...

It is with a sickening sense of inevitability that I can reveal that, contrary to my previous optimism, the enhanced disclosure process is not out of my life.

Oddly enough, we have not failed on filling in the forms which is the most common error (my wife is also going through this procedure). We have simply been caught up in a change of policy (I think) and an administrative error.

When we were filling in the forms and supplementary forms about the supporting documentation, it stated that we had to show the original documents to the designated person who had to sign a form declaring that she had seen and checked the originals. The originals were to be returned to us, and the forms sent on to the Disclosure Unit. Today, we received a phone call to tell us that the forms must now be accompanied by photocopies of the documents. With various diary conflicts, we don’t have an opportunity to hand in the photocopies to the designated person until Thursday. We started this process in November. It took us until two weeks ago to obtain the correct forms and appropriate guidance on the process.

On the day that we handed in our forms and showed our ID documentation, our designated person phoned up Essex County Council to check how much our administration fee should be, so that we could make out the cheque. She was told that the amount was sixteen pounds each, so we made out the cheque accordingly. It seems that we were misinformed, and that Essex County Council wants another twenty-five pence each. Well, if they say so...But it doesn’t seem that there is much one can do when one takes the time to check with the Disclosure Unit and is misinformed by them.

This is a ludicrously long-drawn out and imprecise process that is a gut-aching waste of time, energy and resources. With the recent news that 9.5 million adults in the UK have to go through this process, I can not believe that the process is being handled with any degree of efficiency if our own recent experiences are anything to go by. Neither of these current snarl-ups is attributable to us and yet the inconvenience is solely experienced by us. I’m sure that nobody will be held accountable for failure to disseminate the change of policy or for giving out incorrect information about the administrative fee. Any glugging that you hear is the sound of muda closing over my head.

Copyright 2006, Tony Plant Happystance Project