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@Markyboy
I can only speak from my own experience.
You're spot on with your first point. I sometimes help out by going on school trips with my kids and end up with a group of say 4-6 to supervise. I'm not CRB checked (actually I am, but not through the school and they don't know - and anyway, CRB checks need to be done by each new employer/place you volunteer at).
The second point is more complex, and complexity doesn't necessarily sit well with an article penned by BoJo (never great with detail) for the Telegraph. As I understand it, the school is not responsible for any child's journey to or from school. What it is responsible for, is reporting anything it comes across that it believes puts children at risk. A school, quite rightly, has this duty of care. So, if a teacher notices a child with, for example, regular bruises and other injuries, they might want to consider whether this goes to social services.
As I say, this is only from my experience. At my kids' primary school, there is a boy whose mother has learning difficulties, as does he. From reception (age 5) he was walking the short distance to school - sometimes on his own, sometimes with his sister - and was turning up in filthy clothes. Both of these issues were picked up on and the school, with social services, has done what it can to ensure the appropriate support is in place for the mother. My nine year old daughter often walks to school from her mum's house (for the past year), which is very close to the school - sometimes hooking up with friends - but she frequently walks through the school gates on her own and the school have never said a thing. So it is about judgement and common sense.
I'm not supporting the school in the article Tommy linked to, but it is easy to jump to the conclusion that schools/authorities are always interferring in our lives. Getting the balance right can be difficult. People are just as quick to jump on child protection staff when they step in too late.