THE Government could face compensation claims from schools grappling with the problems caused by delays in staff criminal record checks.

Heads and teaching unions said the cost of drafting in emergency supply staff in some cases should not be met by schools already on tight budgets.

The news came as thousands of youngsters across the region prepared to begin the new term.

Local authorities said they were still waiting for clearance for hundreds of teachers and support staff from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). Some teachers without the required clearance were being told to stay at home and pupils faced possible disruption to timetables.

Darlington Borough Council said it was awaiting checks on 97 staff, including teachers, nursery nurses and kitchen assistants.

Education chiefs are also having to find cover for some taxi drivers without clearance so that youngsters with special needs can be ferried to school.

David Henderson, headteacher at the town's Hummersknott School, said it had to pay for a supply teacher to supervise two members of staff without CRB clearance. He expected some schools would now be considering whether they could recover the cost.

Elaine Kay, of the National Union of Teachers' northern region, said there was the potential for schools to make claims, although it was too early to say whether this would actually happen.

The CRB was launched in the spring to provide a "one-stop shop" for checking the records of teachers and support staff, but delays soon built up.

Seven thousand applications for checks considered to be urgent are still outstanding and it could be Christmas before the entire backlog is cleared.

The Department for Education and Skills said it was now allowing teachers who already had some form of police clearance or were moving between schools to present themselves for work.

Middlesbrough Borough Council has 120 teaching staff still to be vetted, but schools which went back yesterday were open as usual.

Newcastle City Council has 172 outstanding checks but does not foresee that any schools would be closed.

It was a similar picture in County Durham with 411 staff waiting to be checked with the authority not expecting closures.

North Yorkshire County Council said checks on 200 teachers and 190 support staff were still being processed. Director of education Cynthia Welbourn said: "There will be local difficulties to be resolved with juggling of timetables.