SOME escort drivers who transport vulnerable youngsters to Worcestershire's schools may not have been vetted by the education authority, it has been revealed.

County councillors expressed their concern after they also heard that not all of the escorts carried forms of identification.

The revelations prompted fears of "a crisis waiting to happen" when the education/lifelong learning policy advisory panel met yesterday to discuss the provision of the council's 368 escorts.

The panel heard how a review team had been urgently considering the current provision and administration of escorts and drivers.

It concluded that no formal county council policy exists on the issue. The panel heard how escorts were employed by the contracting directorate but supervised daily within fleet services, with support from day centre managers and headteachers - which causes confusion.

Councillor Malcolm Fordyce said he found it very worrying that some escorts had not been vetted before transporting children with special educational needs.

"These people are involved with children and they should all be vetted," he said.

"We just have to look at the incident which happened in London with the little girl who was neglected. It was social services who got the blame for that.

"Paedophiles make it their business to get involved with children. I'm sure there's a 99.9 per cent chance that nothing would happen but there might be a crisis waiting to happen."

Julia Lote, a parent-governor on the panel, declared an interest and said her son has been transported to school by an escort driver.

"I would be horrified to think that my son is being taken to school by someone who's not been vetted," she said. "In my experience I have not seen ID badges on a driver."

The panel considered four options; keeping the current system, transferring escorts to schools and day centres, letting the contractors employ the escorts, or mixing the options.

It agreed to recommend to full council that the options should be mixed to suit individual needs.