Category: DBS News and Advice

Also sometimes known as a TA or Classroom Assistant, the job of a teaching assistant is to help the teacher in the classroom. They undertake a wide variety of roles such as listening to children read, preparing resources and supporting children who require additional help with their work. Working as a teaching assistant is attractive for people who want to work term time only and work closely with children’s education without the responsibility of becoming the class teacher. If it all sounds interesting, here’s what you should know about training as a teaching assistant.

There are over 1.6 million people working in the care sector in the UK, either in nursing or residential homes, or going into clients’ own homes and providing care for elderly people or those living with a disability. This number of carers is only going to rise as the UK population ages, and many agencies are struggling to recruit enough trained and committed staff to meet their needs. If you’re considering a career as a carer here’s what you need to know.

There’s nothing quite like a courtroom drama for tension and intrigue, and although you might be clear about the roles of the judges and the lawyers, what are all of the other people in court doing? There is a wide range of people who are employed in courts and getting a job in the court service can mean interesting work, meeting people from all walks of life and regular working hours. Here are some of the roles which might be available.

When you’re browsing job adverts in the UK, you’ll see that it’s common practice for employers in certain sectors to ask for DBS checking. There are only some jobs which require DBS, which is a type of police check to make sure that people who have previously been suspected or convicted of crimes to have this flagged up when applying for a job. The aim of the scheme is to protect vulnerable groups such as children or the elderly from exploitation or abuse. It’s hard to argue with the idea behind the scheme, but in practice it can cause some worries, especially for people who have had minor brushes with the law in the past. One of the most common issues is with driving offences, from minor offences such as speeding or careless driving, through to more serious offences like drunk driving or causing death by dangerous driving.

There are thousands of young people in the UK working in occupations or volunteering in roles which would often require a DBS check. This could include young people who have left school at 16 and who are undertaking Apprenticeships in care work or in education with younger children, or people who are volunteering with the elderly as part of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme. The problem is that the current DBS system is only geared up to check adults over the age of 18, so what steps should employers and voluntary organisations taken when dealing with people between the ages of 16 and 18?

It’s common practice for employers in businesses or organisations dealing with children or vulnerable adults to require that their workers undergo DBS checking. In most cases, checks will come back clear, saying that the prospective employee has a clean criminal record and has never had any brushes with the law. Those cases are very straightforward for an employer – you tick the box saying a clear DBS certificate has been received, and the employee starts work as soon as they can. What happens though if the DBS check is not clear and shows convictions, possibly from many years in the past?

Although professionals working in the court service or Police try their best to avoid making any mistakes, human error is inevitable. Someone puts the wrong code in a computer, mixes up two names, or gets a date of birth wrong. Often these mistakes are quickly corrected, but sometimes they don’t come to light until much later. One of the more serious mistakes could mean wrong information recorded on a DBS form, showing convictions which never happened, a more serious conviction being recorded, a caution showing as a conviction or any number of other mistakes. These errors could stop applicants from getting jobs, and this is why there are procedures in place to allow people to correct any mistakes on DBS forms.

Most people who have grown up in the UK know that we have a system for checking people who are applying for jobs working with children or vulnerable adults. For people who have always worked and lived in the UK, this process is relatively straightforward as it only involves checking with police forces here in the UK. The situation is more complex when people have only recently come to the UK to live and work, as checks must be done in their home country.

Being out of work is tough, and people who are looking for a job are easy prey for criminals and fraudsters who try to exploit their situation. A growing trend is that of the “fake DBS check”, which can take a couple of different forms and for which job seekers should be on the lookout.

Five years ago, nobody had heard of Uber, and the company has come from nowhere to being one of the fastest growing taxi companies in the UK. Tapping into the “gig economy”, Uber says that it matches drivers with customers, and gives its drivers the opportunity to drive when they like without the commitment of set shifts. There’s been a lot of controversy over whether Uber drivers are self-employed or employed, but this doesn’t seem to have deterred people from applying for a job as an Uber driver.