One quarter of the adult population will require criminal records checks under the new child protection system coming into force next year, according to a report criticising the scheme.

Written by one of Britain’s leading parenting gurus, it says the radical expansion of safety checks will “poison” the relationship between adults and children which has already been undermined by the obsession with formal vetting.

Far from enhancing the safety of children the child protection system, which relies solely on the criminal records checks, places them in more danger because no-one uses their own judgement any more, it said.

The report “Licensed to Hug” is written by Frank Furedi, Professor of Sociology at University of Kent. He is the author of “Paranoid Parenting”, the first work to suggest childhood is being damaged by an obsession with safety.

“Whereas adults would once routinely rebuke children misbehaving or help a child in distress, they now think twice about the consequence of their interactions with other people’s children,” Professor Furedi said.

He cites the case of the death of a two-year-old girl, Abigail Rae, who drowned in a pond after she wandered out of nursery. A man who saw the child walking on her own as he was driving past told the inquest he did not go to help her “because I thought people might think I was trying to abduct her”.

He and co-author Jennie Bristow are even more critical of the expansion of security checks due to come into force next October.

Instead of just having their records checked, all teachers, nursery staff and youth workers will be required to register with a new agency, the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) at the cost of £64.

Ministers have also decided that thousands of other adults should pay for the ISA ‘seal of approval’ including, most recently, parents who have overseas students to stay under school exchange programmes.

In total, 11.3 million adults will have to be vetted, according to the latest estimate from the Department for Children, Schools and Families and contained in the new report.

Since the CRB checking system was introduced in 2002, 15 million disclosures have been made, the report said. Many are duplicates, as adults who work with children move area or job and have to be rechecked.

Professor Furedi said the new system amounts to a “licencing of adulthood”.

“While you do not yet need a licence to parent your own children, you certainly need a licence to interact with anybody else’s. Before they can be counted on to lay a positive role in children’s lives, adults today have to be in possession of a piece of paper showing they are not likely to be a malign and dangerous influence. Implicitly, the licensing of adulthood undermines its authority. Adulthood no longer possesses authority over children -- it requires the legitimation of a security check.”

Voluntary groups say adults are already put off from working with children because of the CRB checks and fear the more expensive and rigorous ISA system will put off even more.

Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, Executive Director of UK Volunteering Charity, CSV, said: “CRB checks are already reducing people's willingness to volunteer through their intrusion and delays. Checks of any kind are only part of the process, moreover, most child abusers have no criminal record. Eternal vigilance is needed to protect vulnerable people.”

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