A POPULAR personality and writer interviewed the mother of two autistic boys yesterday last Tuesday for a television programme about criminal record checks.
Esther Rantzen popped in to Hillingdon Manor School to quiz its founder,Anna Kennedy, for an ITV Tonight With Trevor McDonald programme.
Mrs Kennedy said: "The TV company phoned me about checks made on people who work with children, and I was happy to be interviewed.
"Esther,who is a patron of the school, wrote a piece about this recently in a national paper.
"I had to have separate criminal checks for working in the school and the college, as well as the residential home,and for our outreach service.
"Surely it must be possible to have one check and then issue a card to show you've been checked? This could be updated each year.
"I've heard of one woman who had to have a check to accompany her own special needs child to school!"
Mrs Kennedy and husband Sean set up Hillingdon Manor School for autistic children in 1999, and she was recently interviewed on GM TV with her son Patrick, who is now18.
Her book, Not Stupid, published by John Blake, is the fascinating story of how she was so desperate to get an appropriate education for her two autistic boys that she eventually opened her own school.
Her book is in great demand, while the school, in Harlington Road, has won glowing Ofsted reports and has a long waiting list.
Mrs Kennedy added: "There has been enormous interest in the book and I have been asked to do around a dozen talks all over the place,from Dublin to Oxford. "
It is not yet known when the programme will be shown.
