Safeguard legislation allows organizations to carry out background checks on people they hire to work or volunteer in regulated activities. Checks are issued by AccessNI. Volunteers at schools that are not supervised will need to undergo a DBS check with a list of prohibitions, as they are considered to be carrying out a “regulated activity”. Providers of regulated activities (employers or voluntary managers of people working in regulated activities in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and personnel providers have a legal obligation to consult the DBS when certain conditions.
When DBS checks are carried out on volunteers, they must be registered in the school's single central registry. For example, in the case of voluntary inmates, volunteering can take place in prison or in the community while the inmate is released one day. It's illegal for organizations to hire a person or allow them to volunteer for this type of work if they know they're on the appropriate banned list. Volunteers in schools, for example, in “specific places” and supervised at a reasonable level, do not need to undergo a database verification.
This means that the regularity with which the activity is carried out is no longer important to improve disclosure without checking the prohibited list (s). The DBS Code of Practice states that disclosures should not be kept for more than six months, except in exceptional circumstances. Only certain volunteer functions and activities are eligible to receive checks, and it's a crime to request a check from DBS if the position isn't eligible for one. This occurs when a person requests an improved DBS check to work with children or adults under certain circumstances, such as when they receive medical care or personal care, and the check reveals relevant information that makes it possible to consider including that person on one of the prohibited lists or both. The legislation prescribes eligibility for standard DBS checks, enhanced and enhanced with ban lists.
The Disclosure and Prohibition Service (DBS) helps employers make safer hiring decisions every year by processing and issuing DBS checks for England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. This occurs when an employer, volunteer director, or other organization fears that someone has caused harm or may cause harm to vulnerable groups and submits a request for a ban to DBS. The degree of “oversight” will determine whether a volunteer carries out a regulated activity and, consequently, whether it is necessary to check the list of prohibited persons. For example, a volunteer who meets with someone with learning difficulties weekly could be evaluated at a higher level, while a volunteer administrator from the same organization with access to personal records would not.
DBS England and Wales offers a basic verification service if the person lives or works in England or Wales.
