if you weren't cautioned or arrested there shouldn't be anything on your criminal record afaik - you actually have to sign a caution to accept it (it means you accept guilt, and they agree to let you off), so if you haven't signed one you should be ok i think.
CRB CHECK? urgent
Speaking from experience, it should have no effect whatsoever. Even had you been cautioned, the offence ahd notbhing to do with child safety. If you are really worried, I'd suggest going to the school and telling the head about the whole business. If s/he doesn't want you after that, then you probably don't want to work there. If the head is ok it shouldn't have any impact at all.
A standard level CRB disclosure reveals convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings. I don't know what the official status of the last 2 are, but presumably you'd be told if you'd had one?
An enhanced level disclosure will also include information held by local police on you - stuff not on the Police National Computer. This could be stuff like being seen hanging around school gates, or suspected dealer - stuff that means they're keeping tabs on you but haven't taken any action as yet. So I guess it's possible that the incident may have been recorded.
If you're working directly with kids in a school they'll probably do an enhanced check. Local police should only pass on anything they think is relevant, and I can't see that this is (the only thing is, you wouldn't know what if any of this information is passed on - it doesn't come to you in the way that conviction, caution, warning and reprimand info does on the disclosure certificate, it goes straight to the employer). Even if it's passed on, the school should only take into account information relevant to the role. Under the CRB code of practice they should only take relevant convictions etc into account, and again this doesn't sound relevant to me.
If you've any doubts call Nacro (national association for the care and resettlement of offenders), they're really good on this sort of stuff - 0800 0181 259
Edit: Yeah, what Knightrose said.
I had a similar experience. I was arrested April 2003 for criminal damage after some dead revolutionary activity when GWBush came over to Belfast.
Anyway, they arrested us, questioned us and said they would formally catuion us - which would have been fine.
Except they never did caution us, so 2 yrs later when I was due to start my teacher-training the CRB check came up with "case-pending" - which looks way worse than just getting a caution cos it still sound liek you could be charged.
After some wrangling, many phone calls and having to get a personal character statement written by a friend my place on the PGCE was confirmed and afterwards the police admitted their fuck-up and eventually cleared the record.
But yeah the University were fine about the offense cos it had nothing to do with child-safety or working with vunerable people, it was criminal damage during anti-war stuff - so they accepted the character statement.
having worked for the CRB (admittedly a few years ago), i can pretty safely say that it shouldn't be a problem, sicne it doesn't demonstrate that you are violent or dishonest. the worst that should happen is that your future employer will ask you about it, you explain what happened and that's that. usually it's just for violence (as conor says, property destruction is usually seen as different to violence, and quite rightly so) or dishonesty when you'd get problems with a job.
ps. what everyone else said.
it will be an enhanced check - the only thing that concerns me is that we were told by police that the law on dog bites has changed - and that even though the victim didnt want to press charges, it had to be pursued by police because she had suffered bodily harm (a bite on her forearm)- I don't know what schools criteria is for rejection - or how much detail is given (will it read pending caution for bodily harm!!?), and this will prompt police to come and caution me after all... do they have a write off point?
I think contacting the head is the best move, thanks knightrose, thanks all
Reading online I see that there are a lot of good people being barred from doing good work because of silly mistakes in their youth - there but for the grace of god go so many of us.... the Soham case has caused the door to be slammed on anyone with the slightest stain, a real pity because so often people who have lived a little often have much more to give.
I think the fear of the reaction you'll get is usually worse than the reality. Most places working with vulnerable people will have carried out lots of checks and will be sensible about the decisions they make. A third of men have a criminal record by the age of 30 and somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of women do. They'll be used to seeing irrelevant stuff come up, and they should ask you about stuff they're not sure of, so even if the way the caution's described sounds a bit scary you can explain it.
But anyway, being upfront about it is probably your best bet. Small incident, person involved didn't even want it taken up, no serious police action taken. Hardly makes you Myra Hindley. They're wankers if they hold it against you.
CAN ANYONE ADVISE PLEASE I have got a job in a school, bar paperwork - I am worrying bout the CRB bit - about a year ago my dog bit a woman in the street - even though we apologised, my husband gave the lady his number and contacted police himself, they arrested him, fingerprinted and DNAed him and really screwed his head up - then they heard that it was I who was holding the lead at the time of the bite and so said they were going to caution me - they came round to the house (no strong arm tactics for me for some odd reason, which did not help my husband's clinical paranoia ) took a recorded statement and said they would return to give a caution - but they never did ... where do I stand with a CRB now? The dog was from a rescue place and has since been sent back there! Will I be barred from job?