Police checks stall school camps

Greenmeadows School principal Mark Johnson said the vetting service was "not an efficient system".

Local principals say a bottleneck of police checks on staff and parents is jeopardising school camps and stalling new teacher registrations.

Hastings Intermediate principal Andrew Shortcliffe said the lengthy wait times were the reason his pupils were tenting on the school's back field for camp this week.

It was taking too long to get police checks on parent volunteers.

"We were doing a 3-day away camp but we changed it to a 3-day at-school camp with the tents on the back field. The teachers are the only ones who have a police vet."

The school had received a note saying the police vetting service was experiencing "unprecedented demand" this year, and the wait time was 21-28 working days.

"That's actually a long time. It's had an impact on us because we like to go out on camps in week 5. If it's the same next year we won't go in week 5 or we'll have the camp at school with teachers."

A long wait for a police check had also stalled the process of registering a new teacher at Hastings Intermediate this year. A police vet is the first step a graduate teacher takes when registering to teach.

"There's never been such a delay in teacher's registrations. It's surprising we haven't had an explanation for why the demand's blown up this year."

Hawke's Bay Primary Principals Association president and Te Mata School principal Michael Bain said there were "big delays" in the vetting service, caused by high demand.

Hastings Intermediate principal Andrew Shortcliffe said his pupils were tenting on the school's back field for camp this week. Photo / Paul Taylor

Greenmeadows School principal Mark Johnson said the vetting service was "not an efficient system". "I would hope the process for these applications would be quicker."

A police spokesperson said it was normal for the force to experience a "higher demand" for vetting services at this time of year.

Extra staff were being deployed in the vetting services group to meet that demand, they added.

Ministry of Education head of sector enablement and support Katrina Casey said her ministry recommended schools carefully select people to help supervise events but how they did this was "a matter for each school board".