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One of the key steps in getting any DBS certificate is proving that you are indeed the person who is applying for the check. Proving your identity might seem straightforward but the DBS can’t just take your word that you are who you say you are. There is a wide range of official documents which you could use to back up your application, and one of the most valuable of these is a passport. Passports fall into the category of most trusted government documents. It’s not easy to get a passport, they are only issued by central governments, and as they bear the photo of the holder, it’s a great way to match the application to the face. The UK Passport Office has been under considerable stress since the Covid-19 pandemic hit and this has led to changes in the rules around passports and DBS checks.

Thousands of children in the UK make use of the school to home transport system every school day, and not just because they are too lazy to walk. Any child who lives more than three miles from their school is entitled to help to get there, whether this is by bus or in a private taxi. Many children in rural areas get buses to and from school every day, and even in urban areas, children attending schools far away from their home address may be provided with transport too. All drivers and chaperones involved in this system require an enhanced DBS check, given that the nature of their work means they are in close, unsupervised access with children. However, many drivers and other staff members have been furloughed and not working since schools closed in March, and this might be storing up problems for when schools return in September.

There is lots of terminology around the issue of DBS checks. If you’re not up to speed with all the jargon, it can be very complex. One of the more commonly used terms is filtering. Filtering has been in the news over the last month, as the rules about how the concept is applied have changed. It’s therefore probably a good time to run through the basics of what filtering is, and how it works.

Many important items of news have been slipping under the radar as the world concentrates on the Covid-19 pandemic. This means that one of the most important changes in years to the DBS system has largely flown under the radar. However, if you’re one of the thousands of people in the UK who have criminal record, it could hugely improve your employment prospects and put your mind at rest over what might show up on a DBS certificate.

The volunteering culture in the UK is strong and thriving. During the height of the recent pandemic, thousands of people stepped up to answer the government’s call to help out vulnerable neighbours and community members with shopping and other tasks. Several different volunteering programmes ran concurrently, some organised independently, and others through Councils and the NHS. However, in many areas of the country the response to the appeal for volunteers was so strong that Councils were swamped, with volunteers unable to actually help anyone due to delays in the system.

Concerns around safeguarding surfaced recently after it was revealed that someone who had served 15 months in prison for possessing images of child sex abuse was appointed Chair of Pride in Wiltshire. Swindon and Wiltshire Pride, a registered charity, has been criticised by the Charity Commission, and asked to re-evaluate their safeguarding and recruitment policies.

Despite extensive vetting carried out when they were recruited, two men working at a care home have been jailed for theft. The two men stole several valuable items including an OBE medal and jewellery from patients at a home in Reading in Berkshire. The exact number of thefts is unknown, with police indicating that at least ten elderly people had been victims of the pair.

Recent cyber attacks on organisations as diverse as the NHS and EasyJet have shown just how vulnerable businesses are to attacks from organised hackers. It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that companies across the world have been ploughing money into addressing the external threat. However, new research appears to prove that perhaps this investment is misguided, and that a greater threat is posed by the company’s own workers and management.

Lockdown hasn’t just affected those of us who have legal occupations. Police in the South-West of England have highlighted that the drugs trade has been affected too, with drug dealers having to become increasingly creative to move illegal drugs around and get them to users. Police in Plymouth tweeted a photograph of an evidence sack of envelopes, all addressed to individuals around the city who had ordered their illegal drugs to be delivered through the post, at a time where social distancing means that visiting people at home or meeting in the street attracts far more attention. The Police also pointed out that the penalties for receiving drugs in this way are exactly the same for being caught possessing drugs under other circumstances.

At the start of the Covid19 pandemic, there was endless press coverage about the army of volunteers who were stepping up to help the NHS. The idea was that they would carry out routine tasks, freeing up doctors, nurses and other health professionals to deal with patients. However, as restrictions begin to ease, all indications are that in pharmacies, volunteers have not been having the impact initially hoped for.