Volunteers who may be working with vulnerable clients will be asked to undergo a check with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).
Stages of the DBS checking process
The DBS checking process involves several stages before an applicant receives their certificate.
Stage 1 – application form received and validated
The application form is checked for errors or omissions. Within 24 hours of receipt the form is either scanned onto the DBS computer system or returned for correction to the countersignatory.
Stage 2 – Police National Computer is searched
Stage 3 – children and adults lists are searched, where applicable
Stage 4 – records held by the police are searched
Enhanced checks are sent by secure, electronic means to the police for an additional check of local records before the information is sent back to the DBS.
Stage 5 – DBS certificate is printed
All the information to be disclosed is printed under highly secure procedures and sent to the applicant.
Types of Check
Organisations that are entitled to use the DBS checking service can ask successful job applicants to apply for one of the following types of check depending on the job role:
standard check – details of an individual’s convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings recorded on police central records and includes both ‘spent’ and ‘unspent’ convictions
enhanced check – the same details as a standard check, together with any information held locally by police forces that it is reasonably considered might be relevant to the post applied for
enhanced with a barred list check –
- child barred list information is only available for those individuals engaged in regulated activity with children and a small number of posts as listed in the Police Act regulations, for example prospective adoptive parents
- adult barred list is only available for those individuals engaged in regulated activity with adults and a small number of posts as listed in the Police Act regulations
- child and adult barred list is only available for those individuals engaged in regulated activity with both vulnerable groups including children and a small number of posts as listed in the Police Act regulations
adult first – an individual can be checked against the DBS adult barred list while waiting for the full criminal record check to be completed.
