Category: DBS News and Advice

BPSS Checks Looking at recruitment adverts can be hugely confusing, mainly down to the quantity of jargon used. People working in HR are used to abbreviations and are clear about what they mean, but for the rest of us it can be baffling. One of the most confusing issues is around the various types of police checks, namely BPSS and DBS. The two systems are separate but similar, so here’s what you need to know about both and where they apply.

The NHS is under pressure like never before, and managers are coming up with increasingly novel ways of cutting costs and freeing up beds. One of the main issues facing the NHS is dealing with a population which is getting older and frailer, often leading to the phenomenon of bed blocking. Bed blocking happens when someone has been admitted to hospital for an operation and treatment and has recovered well enough to be discharged, but does not have the support or carers to be able to go home. This results in people being kept in hospital longer than needed while support or a care package is organised, effectively blocking a bed for more acute cases. One very novel idea was to pay members of the general public to take these people into their spare rooms, providing meals, the basics of personal care and generally just being around until the patient is well enough to live independently again. Like all new ideas though, this raises considerable questions.

Ever since the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) ceased to exist in 2012 and the new body called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) took over in England and Wales, there has been a bit of confusion over what the service does and what the Barring part of the DBS means. Here’s a simple run down of what the barred lists are, and how they may affect you if you’re applying for a job.

It’s one of those questions which is fairly typical on job application forms in the UK – “Do you have any criminal convictions?” Employers can then use the information given by the candidate on the form to decide whether or not to employ them. However, a report published by a government committee has led to a campaign totally change the way we ask candidates about their criminal past, and what people should be expected to disclose.

It’s a rite of passage for many British teenagers – spending a week or two working in a local company to get a feel for the world of work and make some contacts which could help them in their future career. Work experience is usually organised between parents, schools and the young people themselves, and usually no payment changes hands. It’s a system which works well, but there are often worries about keeping on the right side of legislation designed to protect children and vulnerable adults. If a teenager under the age of 18 is doing work experience, do the other people in the office need to be DBS checked? And what about teens doing their work experience in a hospital or school, should they also be checked? Schools and colleges come up against these issues regularly, and it is often simple to figure out what should happen in your child’s case.

Although the Criminal Records Bureau ceased to exist in 2012, there are still many workers who have their old CRB certificate stored safely at home. The way we talk about police checking is slow to change also, and you’ll still hear people talking about “getting a CRB check” done rather than using the new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) terminology. If you’re employing for a job which requires some level of DBS checking, will your employer accept your existing CRB certificate, or will you have to go through the process again?

We’re living in an increasingly online world. More and more of our dealings with the government from job seeking to filing a tax return are being moved online. There are lots of advantages to doing things digitally; it’s quicker, cuts down on the amount of paper, and allows users to track documents and correspondence over time. The latest official system to be partially moved online is the DBS service, the system used for carrying out police checking on people applying to work with children or vulnerable adults.

One of the most difficult decision any parent faces is which childcare provider to use for their very young child. It can be daunting to select a nursery to care for a baby or toddler for as many as 50 hours a week, and parents want to be sure that they are selecting the very best setting for their child. There are however a few key things to look at to decide whether a nursery is a good and more importantly safe place to send your child.

Controversial taxi company Uber hit the headlines again recently when Transport for London withdrew Uber’s licence to run taxis in the capital. One of the main concerns raised by TfL was the procedures used by Uber to make sure that their drivers were safe and competent, and that they had no criminal records which could make them unsuitable as drivers. Although the decision was welcomed by London’s black cab drivers who have to undergo stringent vetting, Uber is still free to operate taxi services in several other British cities, including Cambridge, Liverpool and Glasgow. So, what is the real story behind TfL’s withdrawal of the Uber operating licence?

Father Christmas is approaching his busiest time of year. As all children know, the real Santa is hard at work creating toys for well-behaved kids, and so delegates the responsibility for chatting to children and finding out what they want to a team of helpers. Taking your kids to see Santa is a time-honoured British tradition, but times change and with increasing awareness of child protection issues, does anyone employing a Santa in a department store, or someone volunteering to stand in for Santa at a charity event need to have a DBS check?