Kent and Medway education chiefs say they confident that security checks on teaching staff taking up new jobs in Kent schools will be completed by the start of term.

However, Kent County Council still awaits the outcome of checks on more than 800 school staff by the Criminal Records Bureau and Medway Council is waiting for more than 200 checks to be completed.

And this is with just days to go before tens of thousands of children return to school.

One Kent headteacher said schools could face the prospect of deciding whether to send staff home if they had not been given clearance - which of course might mean children being sent home, too.

Peter Walker, of the Abbey School in Faversham, said the dilemma was most acute for schools with newly qualified teachers and those returning to the profession after a break.

The Department for Education and Skills has told Kent - along with all education authorities - that teachers must not be allowed in the classroom until they have been fully cleared.

On August 23 Kent was facing a massive backlog with 852 checks outstanding. Six days later the Criminal Records Bureau had cleared just 45 of those.

Mr Walker, who stressed KCC was not at fault, said: “What will happen if schools are waiting for CRB checks? Do you send them home? We cannot afford to do that at the start of a new school year. If schools have made last-minute appointments late last term, there may not have been enough time. Heads will have to make a judgement and will have to take advice from the authority’s personnel department.”

Education chief Dr Ian Craig said the matter was effectively out of Kent’s hands but he was “hopeful” the checks would be done in time.

KCC is telling schools to follow the DfES guidance, which states no teacher should be allowed to work without clearance.

The Criminal Records Bureau, a Home Office agency, has been forced to take on an extra 100 staff to clear a mounting backlog of applications, caused by teething problems with the new system of checks.