Police checks

are causing issues again.
There was a  little piece in the paper this morning about the need for all volunteers working with children under the age of 18 to have the relevant check.
Perhaps it is necessary and at least they have waived the $95 fee for this. 
It still  bothers me. It bothers me because I am not at all certain it is going to solve the problems of sexual abuse, violence, fraud, theft and more.
People volunteer for many reasons and most of those reasons are good. The vast majority of people who volunteer do so for the best of reasons. They are to be encouraged and assisted to volunteer.  We want young people to volunteer.
One of the reasons for encouraging young people to volunteer is that far too many of our current volunteers are over eighty. It used to be that that majority of volunteers was over sixty (women) and sixty-five (men).  That is, people were volunteering when they retired. 
Now people are working longer. Some who are no longer in the paid workforce are involuntary child minders for their  children. They can't volunteer on a regular basis when they have to be available to take their grandchildren to and from school and to and from after-school activities and take care of them during the school holidays. All the service organisations I know of are finding their numbers are dwindling. The average age of the volunteers in the local charity shop  is well over eighty. They would love some young volunteers to discover what it means to volunteer and to get into the habit of regular volunteering  - but young volunteers can only work with people who have police checks.
We need volunteers. Our taxes don't cover everything. The local library was asking for weekend shelvers recently. I haven't put my paw up but the staff don't expect me to do so. They know I often shelve books anyway. I also look after the knitting group - and yes, that is fun but it is also volunteering.What's more they want young people to be the volunteers. All the staff have police checks of course.
And unfortunately police checks, while they might help, are not  going to solve the problems. The people who have certificates fall into two categories - those who have never offended and those who have not been caught yet. 
It is not good news for the future of volunteering.