Safeguarding Frequently Asked Questions

A: Safer recruitment is a set of practices to help make sure staff and volunteers are suitable to work with children, young people and vulnerable adults. It's a vital part of creating a safe and positive environment and making a commitment to keep the most vulnerable safe from harm.

A: The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is a non-departmental public body of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, formerly referred to as Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).  The DBS process enables employers to check the criminal record of someone applying for a role within their organisation and helps them to make safer recruitment decisions.  DBS also maintains the Adults’ and Children’s Barred Lists, and makes considered decisions as to whether an individual should be included on one or both of these lists and barred from engaging in regulated activity. 

The National Church of England Safeguarding Practice Guidance on Safer Recruitment sets out safer recruitment practices for people working or volunteering with children and adults. The most important and legally binding aspect is the completion of DBS checks.

A: Decisions on when and if to request a DBS check are for the employer or regulator to make based on what the law allows. This means starting with a detailed role description of the activities carried out by the post-holder in order to determine the correct level of DBS.

You can use any of the checklists below to determine if a DBS is required and at which level

• Church of England DBS role eligibility guidance
• APCS DBS eligibility toolkit
• gov.uk DBS eligibility toolkit

A: This should include details of what activities the person is required to undertake and how often (within a 30 day period), and whether the activites involve children, young people or vulnerable adults.    You can find templates for most roles on the diocesan safeguarding site.  Please note - the templates are examples and you may need to change the wording to add the activity details to suit the role you are creating. Click Here go to the tab Safer Recruitment Documents. 

A: There are four types of DBS check, and each type results in a DBS certificate being issued to an individual. Employers can then ask to see the certificate to ensure that they are recruiting suitable people into their organisation. The information on each check is different.

The four levels of DBS check are:

• A Basic DBS check is for any purpose, including employment. The certificate will contain details of convictions and conditional cautions that are considered to be unspent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. There is no eligibility requirement for a basic DBS check. An individual can apply for a Basic check directly to DBS through the online application route, or an employer can apply for a basic check on an individual’s behalf, through a Responsible Organisation, if they have consent.

• A Standard DBS check is suitable for certain roles. The certificate will contain details of both spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings that are held on the Police National Computer, which are not subject to filtering.  An individual cannot apply for a standard check by themselves. There must be a recruiting organisation who needs the applicant to get the check. This is then sent to DBS through a Registered Body. The service is free for volunteers.
• An Enhanced DBS check is suitable for people working with children or adults in certain circumstances such as those in receipt of healthcare or personal care. The certificate will contain the same details as a standard certificate and, if the role is eligible, an employer can request that one or both of the DBS barred lists are checked. The certificate may also contain non-conviction information supplied by relevant police forces, if it is deemed relevant and ought to be contained in the certificate.
• An Enhanced with Barred Lists DBS check is also suitable for people working with children or adults in certain circumstances such as those in receipt of healthcare or personal care. An Enhanced with Barred Lists certificate will contain the same information as an Enhanced DBS certificate, but will also include a check of one or both Barred Lists.

A: If you are applying for a standard or enhanced criminal record check through DBS, you are asked to select the “workforce type” which is relevant to your situation. In simple terms these are:

• Child Workforce - as the name suggests this covers many – but not all – roles working with children. Standard or enhanced checks for a child workforce group can only be carried out for someone carrying out regulated activity with children. This is defined as roles including supervising, teaching or caring for children and covers jobs like being a school bus driver, a teacher or worker in a nursery. It wouldn’t cover someone working in a children’s clothes shop or making sandwiches in a soft play centre as they are not directly supervising children. It would however cover contractors who are working in a school temporarily, and even adults living in a house with a family member who is a child minder.

• Adult workforce - the adult workforce group covers people who are providing similar care or assistance to adults who are vulnerable. There is no one definition of “vulnerable”, but it usually covers adults who have disabilities, or who are elderly and in need of support or advocacy. People who are working with this group to provide care, social work or who help with managing budgets and paying bills all fall into the adult workforce group. Anyone who is a patient in hospital is considered vulnerable, meaning all hospital workers are part of the adult workforce.

A: DBS checks for PCC members

There are three levels of DBS checking – basic, standard and enhanced levels. Information on these levels can be found online.

              As the Charity Commission recommends that trustees always obtain a DBS check when eligible to do, the Diocese of Hereford expects all PCC members to get a DBS check done at the ‘basic’ level.

              If a PCC sponsors and approves, in its own name, children’s, young people or vulnerable adult’s work then the members of the PCC will be eligible for an Enhanced DBS without barred list check.  

 Further detail if required

 PCC members, although charity trustees, are not by virtue of their membership of the PCC engaging in ‘regulated activity’ with children or vulnerable adults and are therefore not automatically eligible for enhanced DBS disclosures (with barred list checks). Charity trustees are eligible for enhanced DBS disclosures (without barred list checks) if the charity qualifies as a “children’s charity ” or a “vulnerable adults’ charity ”.   We will have to provide evidence this is the case if an enhanced check is requested.

 Provision of a Sunday School would not generally satisfy this requirement because the teaching of children in church on Sundays is, as a matter of law, an activity carried out in furtherance of the incumbent’s duty (under Canon C 24.4) to “instruct the parishioners of the benefice, or cause them to be instructed, in the Christian faith”. Incumbents must all have an enhanced DBS check.  PCCs have no specific duties in relation to providing instruction in the Christian faith.  A careful analysis will be required to see whether the PCC does qualify, there can be no blanket approach. 

 For example, if a PCC is a charity and it sponsors and approves, in its own name, work with children, young people or vulnerable adults, by entering into an employment contract with a youth worker to run a youth club or other children’s activities or entering into a contractual arrangement with a worker to provide a regular care service to adults who receive a health or social care service, then the PCC may qualify as a children’s or vulnerable adults’ charity (as the case may be) and in such circumstances PCC members would be eligible for an enhanced DBS check.   PCCs, however, may not meet the definition of a  “children’s charity” or “vulnerable adults’ charity”.  You are advised to seek advice from the safeguarding team in relation to such matters.

Every member of a PCC must complete a Fit and Proper Persons Form and sign that declaration to say that they are not disqualified from holding that position.

Churchwardens are ex officio members of the PCC, and as such, when the PCC qualifies for a check, the churchwarden(s) would be eligible for an enhanced DBS check without barred list check.

A: The expiry dates for a DBS, both basic and enhanced, have recently changed:

Checks done before 4th January 2022 last for 5 years.

Checks done on or after 4th January 2022 last for 3 years.

Between 4th January 2022 and 3rd January 2024, all individuals with a DBS must be rechecked, in order to get all checks in line with the new three-year duration. By 3rd January 2024, all those requiring enhanced DBS checks (with/without Barred List) will have a certificate that is three years or less, and will be on a 3 yearly recheck cycle.

A: The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (ROA) allows certain convictions and cautions to be considered ‘spent’ (i.e. legally ignored) after a specified period of time. The specified period is determined by the sentence or penalty received for the offence. Once a caution or conviction is spent, the person is considered rehabilitated and the ROA treats the person as if they had never committed an offence.

This means that applicants with criminal records have the right to legally withhold such information when applying for most jobs or voluntary roles. If someone’s caution or conviction is spent, it’s unlawful for employers/recruiters etc. to consider it when deciding their suitability for a job/role.

Some roles are made exempt from the ROA by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975, commonly known as the ‘ROA Exceptions Order’.  Broadly speaking, the ROA Exceptions Order lists those roles and positions that are exempted from the provisions of the ROA, and this includes those roles which will have substantial contact/work with children, young people or vulnerable adults.  If the role you are appointing to is exempt, this means the individual will be eligible for a “criminal record check”.

A: A Responsible Organisation (RO) is an organisation registered with the DBS to submit basic checks through a web service.  The Diocese of Hereford is an RO.

A: A Registered Body is an organisation that has registered with DBS to submit Standard, Enhanced and Enhanced with Barred Lists DBS check applications.  The Diocese of Hereford is an Registered Body.

A: Filtering is the term used to describe the process that identifies which criminal records will be disclosed on a Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate. Certain old or minor offences may not be disclosed, these are known as ‘protected’ offences.

A: These lists aim to help organisations recruit safely and protect those they may be working with. There are two main types of DBS barred lists. One includes a list of people who have been banned from working with children, and the other is a list of people who have been banned from working with vulnerable adults.

A: The legal definition of ‘regulated activity with children’, describes the specific activities, establishments, and positions that are eligible for an Enhanced DBS check with a Children’s Barred List check in the child workforce. This guidance applies whether the individuals are paid or unpaid.

A child is any person who has not yet reached the age of 18 years. However, if an activity relates solely to their employment, for example, induction training when starting work or supervising them at work, and they are 16 or 17, then the trainer or supervisor would not be in regulated activity. 

If you are employing or assessing someone to do work that is regulated activity with children, you could request an Enhanced DBS check, with a check of the Children’s Barred List.

When you request a DBS check to assess someone to carry out regulated activity with children this means that you are a regulated activity provider (RAP). 

As a RAP, you have a legal duty to refer an individual to DBS where the relevant conditions are met.

Regulated activity with children is made up of either:

• what activity a person does as part of their job and how often they do it

• where the work takes place and how often the person will work there (e.g. how many days in any 30 day period)

• working in specified positions (in Wales only)

• In some circumstances, supervision of the role must also be considered. 

You can find a Regulated Activity Decision Making flow chart on the Safeguarding page on the diocesan website Click Here

click on 'online DBS Guidance'

If a role within a specified establishment is paid, then the individual will always be in regulated activity with children and therefore eligible for an Enhanced DBS check with a check of the Children’s Barred List. This is regardless of the level of supervision they are under.

If a role within a specified establishment is voluntary, then the organisation must decide whether the role is sufficiently supervised by a person who is in regulated activity (with relevant DBS).  The supervision must be regular and day to day; and the supervision must be “reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure the protection of children”. If this is the case then the volunteer is not in regulated activity with children and is eligible for an Enhanced DBS check only.