The form is very complicated and you have to list all of your addresses over the past 5 years and the dates you lived there, all of the names you have been known by - maiden name, aliases etc. When you hand in the form at the post office you have to pass a 100 point identiy check - this means digging up documents to prove you are who you are.

It's all designed to stop undesirables from getting access to children and that is great however I'm not sure it has that much impact - from what I understand child molesters are very clever and more don't get caught than do.

Lucky for me I don't have any criminal record, but it made me wonder where they drew the line with who was ok to work with kids and who wasn't - were people convicted of rascist attacks, domestic violence or rape acceptable? Was it ok to have had a drug conviction in your teens, how about manslaughter due to dangerous driving? What about armed robbery?

I also started to wonder if everyone in this small town who worked with kids had gone through this process? I think there is a loop hole that says if you are working or volunteering and your child is involved in the activity you don't need the check.... hmmmm  Anyway it's another hoop for me to jump through, a rather irritating one though - least it's not on fire!