And Still We Wait

J’s DBS check is still not through, so still no work in the pipeline.  In some ways this is great, all four of us get to have time together, I have someone to share the housework and cooking with, and we don’t have to set an alarm in the morning.  In other ways, not so good – there’s more people at home, so more mess made, the lack of routine means the kids’ moods are all over the place, and we don’t have an income.

Last time J contacted them he was advised that there was up to a four month delay, he got in touch again yesterday to be told it is now an 18 week delay.  This seems to be due to the fact that J’s DBS has gone to the Met Police who have a huge backlog of DBS’ to process.  Why it has to go to the Met is beyond us as J had a DBS last autumn, and he’s not lived in London since 2002ish.

The whole thing has left us tearing our hair out, we’re lucky that we’re in the fortunate position of having sold our last house, and so do have savings which we can fall back on to cover the time we were expecting J to be earning.  But not everyone is so lucky, what happens to those people who don’t have savings and are just sitting waiting for their DBS to come through before they can start their new job?  Do they sign on for benefits?  I know I’ve always been told not to hand in notice on a previous job until the DBS comes through, but realistically how practical is this, in my last job I had a  two month notice period so in theory, in the current situation I could be offered a job at least six months before I’d be able to actually start it.  It just makes no sense and isn’t workable (pardon the pun).

On top of this we are always hearing about the lack of teachers, especially male primary school teachers – how many others are in the same position as J, newly qualified, looking for their first position, in possession of a DBS carried out within the last 12 months and yet unable to work due to this backlog.

A couple of years ago the rules around what were CRB checks changed, so I would have expected less people to be applying for them – so how can these backlogs be so bad?  A huge part of the problem I imagine will be due to government cuts reducing the actual workforce in place to process the applications.  Though I am sure the Government would be firmly pointing its finger at the Met and crying out “It’s nothing to do with us.”

So, for us, it means more waiting.  Some people would say this is why we shouldn’t have given everything up we had and headed West.  Do we regret what we’ve done?  Not one bit, I love it here, my family love it here and it was right for us to do it.  You get one shot of life and you have to grab it with both hands, even when it’s pricklier than you thought it’d be.