BOURNEMOUTH council is to investigate claims that two students were allowed to work with young children on a council playscheme without being vetted.

Lydia Edwards, 17, of Elgin Road, Talbot Woods, Bournemouth, and Trevor Griffith, 20, of Cardigan Road, Winton, Bournemouth, say they worked voluntarily on the Boredom Busters scheme and were often alone with young children.

When they attended a training weekend on June 13 and 14 the pair say they had still not been subjected to obligatory CRB (Criminal Record Bureau) checks.

Lydia, who plans to train to be a teacher, said she completed at least 37 hours’ unpaid work with Boredom Busters without any checks being done.

She said: “When we went for the voluntary days we were never asked for ID and never given CRB checks. We worked with children on the voluntary days aged from four to 11.

“I was asked to read the children a story and no-one was watching me. I was even asked to eat my lunch with one boy.”

Trevor, who has a qualification in safeguarding children, said: “I worked for eight days over 40 hours and wasn’t CRB checked. They encouraged us to socialise with the children individually and to eat our lunch with the little ones as well.”

Di Mitchell, service director for children’s learning and engagement with Bournemouth council, said: “We take children’s safety extremely seriously and have already made efforts to contact the two volunteers and will be investigating their concerns thoroughly.

“For any Boredom Busters session we ensure that there is a high ratio of staff to children, with around six to eight fully trained and CRB approved staff on site during any session in the school holidays.

“We have a rigorous recruitment and vetting procedure and all members of staff receive child protection training.

“All volunteers are observed by our fully trained staff to ensure sessions are carried out correctly.”