1. Cambridgeshire County Council
Joyce Fenton, Head of HR, Children’s Services

2. Disclosure and Barring Service
From 1st December, 2012 the CRB merged with ISA, the Independent Safeguarding Authority to become the DBS.
The merger brings together the skills, knowledge and experience of the CRB and ISA to help employers make safer recruitment decisions and to prevent unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups including children.
The DBS is a non-governmental, public body.
Customers and stakeholders will still use the same contact details as they have always done - whether it’s applying for criminal record checks or referring people for safeguarding decisions.
Importantly the staff who process the applications and make the safeguarding and barring decisions also remain the same; so there will be no disruption to the quality of service previously delivered by the CRB and ISA.
Criminal record checks play an important role in helping employers make safer recruitment decisions. They have helped stop more than 150,000 unsuitable people from working with vulnerable groups in the past seven years. In 2011/12, more than four million people applied for a criminal records check. Around 12 per cent of people applied for more than one check and 23 per cent of checks were issued to volunteers.
The Disclosure and Barring Service went live on 1 December and provides a service to those requiring criminal records disclosures and barring checks for employment purposes. As a Non-Departmental Public Body, the DBS ensures that barring decisions continue to be taken independently of Ministers and oversees criminal records checking.

3. Why change?
Coalition government’s public commitment to scale the level of vetting ‘back to common sense levels’
Concerns that too many checks were being carried out
Concerns over portability of checks
Concerns over updating of details held by employers
Concerns that organisations couldn’t attract volunteers because of the disclosure process

4. What’s changed? Old Terms New Terms CRB, ISA, VBS DBS
Standard CRB check
Standard DBS check
Enhanced CRB check
Enhanced DBS check
Enhanced CRB check with Barred List check
Enhanced check for regulated activity
ISA Adult First
DBS Adult First
Vulnerable adults
Vulnerable groups
The process by which the DBS provides criminal record data is called Disclosure or a DBS check (previously CRB check). There are three levels of Disclosure, Standard, Enhanced and Enhanced with list checks, that cannot be obtained by members of the public directly but are only available to organisations and only for those professions, offices, employments, work and occupations listed in the Exceptions Order to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act There are 3 types of check:
Standard – only applies to posts covered by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. Discloses convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings
Enhanced – discloses the above plus ‘approved’ information from the police but NOT the ISA (List 99) data. This type of check can be done for anyone who meets the definition of regulated activity from before September This will usually be supervised people working in a regulated activity or location on a frequent, intensive or overnight basis.
Enhanced for regulated activity – (otherwise known as enhanced plus barred list check) All of the above, plus ISA barred list data. Applies to anyone who meets the definition of regulated activity from onwards.

5. What is ‘regulated activity’
Any of the following…………..
Activity of a specialised nature relating to children, which is unsupervised.
Activity for or on behalf of a specified place that gives the opportunity for contact with children.
Vehicle driving or moderating an on-line forum with access to content or users
Relevant personal care for children.
Health care for children.
The management on a daily basis of anyone carrying out any of the above
Foster carers and childminders.
…………..will apply to most activity in schools.

6. What does it mean for schools?
Most people who work in schools will still require a DBS check. This applies to nursery
schools, nurseries, children’s centres, PRUs and all schools, where employees are in
regular contact with children i.e. frequently (once a week or more) or on 4 or more days
in a 30 day period.
HOWEVER, the following groups will not normally be eligible for a DBS check:
Volunteers who work under supervision
People who are on site before and/or after hours when children are present
Visitors who have business or contact with a child which is not classed as regulated activity
Visitors who are on site only to carry out ad hoc repairs or service equipment
Building contractors who only have contact for short periods of time or are in part of the school that is segregated from the main establishment
Secondary school pupils on work experience.
Governors will not normally require a DBS check.

7. What does this mean for schools (2)?
Consider the role of volunteers in the school – do any of them work on an unsupervised basis regularly?
Review the school’s safer recruitment policy to ensure compliance
Ensure all school recruiters are aware of the change in practice in recruiting staff
Continue to undertake risk assessments if appointing someone before the DBS certificate arrives or undertake an assessment of any positive traces on DBS certificates
Be aware that employers will stop receiving DBS certificates later this year
Encourage staff to sign up for continuous updating (small annual fee)
Remain vigilant and don’t over-rely on DBS checks

8. Volunteers
‘Anyone who performs an activity which involves spending time, unpaid, doing
something which aims to benefit someone other than, or in addition to, close
relatives’.
There must be:
Supervision by a person who is in regulated activity and has been subject to DBS clearance
Supervision must be regular and day to day i.e. on-going (not just in the first couple of weeks)
Supervision must be ‘reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure the protection of children’.
The level of supervision may differ depending on the ages and number of children involved and whether or not other workers are helping too. Other issues may involve the nature of the work and the degree of vulnerability of the children plus how many workers would be supervised by each supervising work
Govt. guidance starts with ‘a presumption of trust and confidence in those who work with children and the good sense and judgment of their managers’. Statutory guidance issued which applies when the organisation decides to supervise the volunteer with the aim that:
The supervised work will not be regulated activity
The work would be regulated activity if it were not supervised.

9. Some examples…….
AJ is a new volunteer, helping with reading in the school. He comes in for 2 mornings a week and is generally in the classroom in sight of the teacher. Sometimes AJ is asked to read with some of the children in a side room with one of the TAs who is there most of the time. Do we need a DBS check for AJ?
SW is a new volunteer assisting with the coaching of children after school on behalf of the school. The children work in small groups with a volunteer and one of the PE teachers is in overall charge of the coaching session, although she works with different groups at different times of the evening. Do we need a DBS check for SW?
MS starts work as a paid assistant in the youth club run at the school. She helps instruct a group of young people and is supervised by the youth group leader who is in regulated activity. Do we need a DBS check for MS?
No. He is supervised by the teacher and the TA for most of the time.

10. Future developments DBS Update Service:
Early in 2013, a new, online service to be launched. Will offers applicants
applying for new criminal record checks the opportunity to register with the DBS
Update Service. This will remove the need for repeat applications for DBS
checks by allowing employers to use a simple online service to confirm whether or
not an individual’s check is up-to-date or not. It will establish if further relevant
information has been identified since the initial criminal record certificate was
issued.
Single Certificate.
Also in 2013, the DBS will start issuing the certificate to the applicant only. This
will allow the applicant to dispute and make appropriate representations about
any information released on the certificate, without this information having
already been seen by the employer. Your DBS Registered Body will, however, be
able to track the progress of applications online so that you will know whether a
certificate has been issued or not, and, if so, when.
Firstly, a new definition of regulated activity is now in place which requires all schools and academies to use the statutory guidance on supervision, to determine whether the level of supervision provided for a volunteer will take the supervised activity out of “regulated activity” .
This is because in law, schools and academies are no longer entitled to check barred list status (ie List 99) for staff or volunteers who will not be undertaking regulated activity. In other words, lawfully, from 10 September 2012, a List 99 check can only be carried out on staff or volunteers who are engaged in regulated activity.
In addition there is no longer a duty to obtain enhanced CRB clearance for volunteers not engaged in regulated activity. However paid workers in schools are in regulated activity even if supervised.
The new definition of regulated activity in relation to children is, in summary:
unsupervised activities: teach, train, instruct, care for or supervise children, or provide advice / guidance on well-being, or drive a vehicle only for children;
work for a limited range of establishments (‘specified places’) with opportunity for contact with children: e.g schools, children’s homes, childcare premises. Not work by supervised volunteers;
Work under (i) or (ii) is regulated activity only if done regularly: ‘regularly’ is defined in detail under items (a) to (f) in the factual note by HM Government.
It is the responsibility of schools and academies to determine whether they are entitled to request a barred list check (List 99), and whether they wish to request an enhanced CRB check for roles outside of regulated activity. Please be aware that EPM will process legitimate checks that are requested, but cannot be a party to the decision as to whether the checks should be undertaken.
As schools and academies are ‘specified places’, an activity is a regulated activity if it is carried out frequently (once a week or more, or on 4 or more days in a 30 day period) and gives the person the opportunity in their work to have contact with children subject to the following new exceptions:
Activity by a person contracted (or volunteering) to provide occasional or temporary services (not teaching, training or supervision of children).
Volunteering, under day to day supervision of another person engaging in regulated activity.
Key points to note in respect of supervision are as follows:
It must be undertaken by a person who is in regulated activity
It must be regular and day to day
It must be ‘reasonable in all the circumstances to ensure the protection of children’
Please note that the guidance documents which can be accessed at the links above must be read in full. The above points do not substitute the comprehensive guidance.
Secondly, children under the age of 16 are no longer eligible for CRB checks.
Further Changes Taking Place in September 2012
The government guidance ‘Changes to Disclosure and barring: What you need to know’ sets out further changes taking place in September These include:
Repeal of Controlled Activity There will no longer be this separate definition for job roles that require less contact with vulnerable groups than regulated activity. Work is either a regulated activity or it is not, in accordance with the above mentioned statutory guidance.
Repeal of requirement to register and continuous monitoring This did not come into force.
Repeal of additional information This was the provision in the Police Act for the police to be able to provide information to employers, under separate cover to the CRB check requested, and which was not provided to the prospective employee themselves. Whilst this has been repealed, the police may still choose to use common law powers to provide information directly to employers in cases where this is necessary, for example to prevent crime or harm to others.
More rigorous ‘relevancy’ test for when the police release information held locally on an enhanced CRB check Currently, the police provide information held locally on enhanced CRB certificates when they consider it to be relevant to the purpose for which the certificate was requested. This will continue, but the police will now apply a more rigorous test before deciding whether to disclose information. At the moment they include information if it ‘might be relevant’ and ought to be disclosed. From September 2012, they will include it if they ‘reasonably believe it to be relevant’ and consider that it ought to be disclosed. An Independent Monitor will be appointed to oversee the disclosure of police information. The standard disclosure is primarily for positions involving regular contact with children or vulnerable adults, but can also be used for some other professions of high responsibility (for example, accountancy). Standard Disclosures reveal details of any convictions, cautions, reprimands and final warnings the applicant has received, regardless of length of time since the incidents; together with details of whether that person is banned from working with children or vulnerable adults (if these details have been requested). The CRB aims to issue Standard Disclosures within 10 days of receipt of the application.
As of 12 October 2009, the Standard Disclosure is checked only against the PNC. This is due to the rollout of the ISA Adults and ISA Children's lists, against which the Standard Disclosure cannot be checked. Any Standard Disclosure applications being sent to CRB from 12 October onwards with the relevant boxes on the application form selected are rejected by the CRB mailroom. The price of the Standard Disclosure was lowered from £31 to £26 to reflect these changes.5
Enhanced disclosure is for positions involving greater contact with children or vulnerable adults (for example: teachers, nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, social workers, student nurses, student midwives, medical students, dental students, pharmacists, pharmacy students) and for certain additional professions (for example, judicial appointments). In general, the type of work will involve regularly caring for, supervising, training or being in sole charge of children or vulnerable people. Examples include working as a teacher, or Scout or Guide leader. Enhanced checks are also issued for certain statutory purposes such as gaming and lottery licences.
In addition to the information provided on a Standard Disclosure, the Enhanced Disclosure involves an additional check with the police, who check if any other information is held on file that may be relevant (for instance, investigations that have not led to a criminal record). The police decide what (if any) additional information will be added to the Disclosure. In rare circumstances the police may write to the employer separately giving confidential information about an ongoing criminal investigation into the applicant. This information may not be released to the applicant and the employer cannot reveal it to them.
The CRB aims to issue Enhanced Disclosure within 28 days of receiving the application, however the involvement of local police forces can affect the time taken to process an Enhanced Disclosure application.
This includes all that Enhanced disclosure does, plus a check of the appropriate DBS barred lists (referrals by employers of their employee being sacked in relation to harming a person).6

11. Questions or comments?