STAFF at a North East-based quango threatened with the axe will not learn their fate until next year, after a review of child protection checks was announced.

The vetting and barring system for those working with children - run by the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA), in Darlington - will undergo a radical shake-up, the Home Office said.

The review will examine "what, if any, scheme is needed now" - suggesting ministers are ready to scrap it altogether, as well as considering how to limit its scope.

A Home Office spokeswoman, asked if the ISA would survive the review, replied: "Nothing has been ruled out."

The announcement of the review comes just one week after the ISA, which employs 200 people at Morton Palms, was put on a list of quangos "under consideration" for the chop.

Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, named 192 bodies to be abolished, 118 to be merged and a further 171 to be significantly reformed, admitting there would "inevitably" be job losses.

The threat to the ISA first emerged in June, when the Home Office suspended a "draconian" scheme to vet nine million people working with children and vulnerable adults.

It meant adults would only be checked if they saw the same group of children or vulnerable people once a week or more, rather than once a month as originally proposed.

In the summer, the Home office stressed that ISA staff would still be required to decide whether people suspected of posing a risk should be allowed to take up their posts and maintain lists of people barred.

Now the review will examine the long-term future of the scheme - set up following the murder of Soham schoolgirls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman - and report back "early in the New Year".

Tim Loughton, the children's minister, said: "Any vetting system should not be a substitute for proper vigilance by individuals and society.

"At the moment, the pendulum has swung too far and threatens to drive a wedge between children and well-meaning adults."

Last month the think-tank Civitas called for the scheme to be axed altogether, claiming it threatened to "poison the relationship between the generations".

Its report highlighted more than 12,000 innocent people erroneously being labelled as paedophiles or criminals and councils banning parents from playgrounds, because only vetted "play rangers" would be allowed in.

But children's charities disagreed, warning the scheme was "necessary to protect our children", however preferable it would be not to have it.

The Home Office spokeswoman added: "The role of the ISA will be considered as part of this review, which aims to make the arrangements in place more proportionate."