News & Events

Portable criminal records – the new DBS Update service – are you ready?

Many people working with vulnerable groups within the sector often move between organisations and sometimes have both paid and volunteer roles. It will now no longer be necessary to apply for a new criminal record (DBS) check each time this happens.

The DBS Update service will be launched on 17 June and this will mean that for the first time, individuals will be able to apply to have their criminal record check kept up-to-date and you as the employer will be able to go online to see if the information released is still current and valid.

Anyone who applies for a DBS check will be able to choose to subscribe to the DBS Update Service for £13 per year or free of charge for volunteers. Their criminal record certificate will be kept updated, so they will be able to take it with them from role to role, within the same workforce.

A voluntary organisation will be able to carry out a free, instant online check of the individual’s certificate (with consent) to check that it is up-to-date and would only need to carry out a new DBS check if the update status check shows that something has changed.

At the same time the DBS will introduce the single issue certificate. This means that the DBS certificate will be sent to the applicant only. A voluntary organisation as employer will no longer receive a certificate copy and will need to ask to see the new certificate of any staff member or volunteer.

WCVA Criminal Records Unit is holding a series of events in July to help organisations understand the new Update Service as well as the Duty to Refer to DBS. For more details see http://www.wcva.org.uk/training-and-events/events

Contact us for detailed advice and guidance on the new Update service and further information is available at DBS

DBS filters certain old and minor cautions and convictions, reprimands and warnings from criminal record certificates

The DBS has this morning announced that from today (29 May) they will be removing certain old and minor offences from criminal record certificates.

Standard and Enhanced DBS certificates will still include details of convictions and cautions recorded on PNC and in addition an Enhanced DBS certificate may also include information taken from police records that a chief officer of a police force considers relevant to the application and/or details of whether an individual is included on one or both of the barring lists.

However, some information will now be filtered and will not appear on the certificate. The cautions and convictions filtered are set out in legislation. The DBS website has more detail on the filtering rules and importantly a list of offences that will never be filtered.

The list includes a range of offences which are serious and which relate to sexual offending, violent offending and/or safeguarding. It would never be appropriate to filter such offences and this list is available at DBS.

For more information DBS

DBS Update Service and single issue certificate announcement

The DBS has today announced that the new Update service will be introduced on 17 June 2013. This will mean that for the first time, individuals will be able to apply to have their criminal record check kept up-to-date and you as the employer will be able to go online to see if the information released is still current and valid.

WCVA Members seminar - Disclosure and Barring Service: A duty to refer and new developments in DBS checks

WCVA Criminal Records Unit is proud to introduce their new safeguarding service and offer you the opportunity to find out more about your safeguarding duties when working with vulnerable groups - adults or children, and update you on new Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check arrangements.

We are delighted to have support from the Disclosure and Barring Service Referral team and they will be explaining about when to refer and how to refer in order to meet your legal obligations, with plenty of opportunity for you to ask questions of your own.

The CRU team will also be presenting on the new DBS Update Service and how it will impact upon your organisation for recruiting new volunteers or paid staff or carrying out rechecks.

These seminars will take place:-

Thursday 4 July  Future Inn, Cardiff Bay

Friday 5 July  National Botanic Garden of Wales, Carmarthen

Tuesday 9 July  Venue Cymru, Llandudno

Wednesday 10 July  Pavilion, Llandrindod Wells

Each venue will provide two opportunties to attend the seminar. Places cost £15 for WCVA Members and £25 for non-members.

For more information please contact eventsadmin@wcva.org.uk or phone 02920 431724 or visit http://www.wcva.org.uk/training-and-events/events

Safeguarding

WCVA CRU have run a pilot Safeguarding Service since December 2012 to consider what further information and support third sector organisations would benefit from to understand the changes in the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and how it impacts on their wider safeguarding work. CRU is currently recruiting a Safeguarding Services Officer to take the work beyond the pilot stage and build a body of information and training resources for roll-out across the third sector in Wales. A new Safeguarding area on the CRU website is already freely accessible and you will see this grow and develop over the next year. So keep watching this space.

Filter old and minor convictions

Social services expert appointed to safeguarding panel

The Deputy Minister for Social Services, Gwenda Thomas, has announced the appointment of one of Wales’ leading experts in social services, Phil Hodgson MBE, as the chair of the Safeguarding and Protection Expert Development Panel. The panel is being established to provide advice to the Welsh Government on the future safeguarding and protection arrangements for people in Wales being taken forward in the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Bill. It will bring together experts to consider how the proposals will operate in practice and how future safeguarding and protection arrangements in Wales can be further strengthened. It is intended that the Panel will have 4 expert members, who will be appointed shortly. 

Safeguarding Event - meeting your legal duty to refer and implications for third sector providers 

We have had an overwhelming response to this event and it is now fully subscribed. We realise that the sector needs help and support with this subject and with this in mind we will be running a programme of events in the future. We will keep you updated with any information regarding these events.

Are you working with vulnerable groups including children?

Are you aware of your statutory duty to refer individuals to the Disclosure and Barring Service?

Do you need to know more about when to refer and how to refer in order to meet your legal obligations?

This event will focus on the barring functions of the DBS and is specifically aimed towards people who have a responsibility for individuals in regulated activity.

To attend this joint event on 19 March held by the Disclosure and Barring Service and WCVA Criminal Records Unit please contact us on 0800 0197 391 or email cru@wcva.org.uk for booking information.

As this event will be heavily subscribed we will be running similar events in the future and will keep you informed with dates.

Government will challenge Court of Appeal ruling on criminal records

The government will seek leave to appeal against a court ruling that job applicants do not have to disclose all criminal records.

The Court of Appeal has ruled the law which requires people to disclose all previous convictions to certain employers is a breach of human rights and is incompatible with the right to a private and family life.

A government spokesperson has indicated that the protection of children and vulnerable groups should not be compromised and has confirmed that the government will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.

For more information http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/agencies-public-bodies/dbs/

Free portable checks for volunteers announced

The Government has announced that the new updating service will be available free of charge to volunteers.

From Spring of this year individuals will no longer have to apply for a new criminal record check each time they apply for a position. Instead, the will only have to apply once to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) for a certificate and then go online for an instant check to find out if the existing certificate is still up to date.

This will end the need for individuals to apply for multiple checks to work with different organisations and volunteers will be able to use the service for free when applying for different volunteering opportunities. For paid employees there will be an annual subscription fee which will be less than the cost of a new check.

For more information Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

The CRB is changing

On 1 December 2012, the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is merging with the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA). The new name will be the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

The CRB will rebrand all its documents and change its logo to reflect this. From the 1 December the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) website will provide more information on the transition.

International Child Protection Certificate

In a joint initiative the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre and ACPO Criminal Records Office have launched the International Child Protection Certificate. Similar to the UKs CRB system the ICPC is a police check for UK nationals who are travelling and working overseas. It will help identify and screen out those who have previous convictions that make them unsuitable to be working with children.  The ICPC will contain a persons complete conviction history as recorded on UK police records and will include spent and unspent convictions as well as any foreign criminal history information where such information has been disclosed in the UK.

The ICPC will allow international schools and other organisations who work directly with children abroad to be able to access the criminal conviction history of UK citizens and those who have resided in the UK for any period of time. It can also be requested for those UK nationals already in paid or voluntary employment in other countries. The certificate will take approximately 10 days to process and can be applied for from anywhere in the world.

For more information - ACPO, CEOP

Protection of Freedoms

The government scaling back of the criminal records and barring systems to more proportionate levels whilst ensuring that there is effective protection for those who need it is enshrined in the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. A number of the changes in this Act come into effect on 10 September 2012 and at a glance these are:-

For more information Protection of Freedoms

ID Guidance

You may be aware the CRB provided new identity checking guidance during the summer and this has been running in parallel with the existing guidance but is due to take effect from August 31st.  The new guidance restricts the number of documents that can be presented and where primary documentation cannot be produced (Route 1) then ID verification has to be supported by external validation (Route 2) to help prevent ID fraud. We anticipate that most of our users will be unaffected by the changes and will continue to accept and examine face to face passports and driving licenses as preferred documents for ID verification.

Before implementing the new guidance at CRU and to avoid minimum disruption to our customers we have been awaiting clarification from the CRB regarding the commercial providers for the external validation service needed for Route 2. We can now confirm that from Friday 31 August our systems will run according to the new ID guidelines.

You can find further details in our Members Area and full CRB Identity checking guidelines can be found at ID Guidance.

WCVA Members' Seminar

CRU is proud to offer a unique opportunity for you to gain a close understanding of changes in safeguarding and CRB checks, due to be phased in from September.

The Government plans to scale back criminal records and barring systems, while still maintaining effective safeguarding.

Meanwhile, the Protection of Freedoms Act, which came into law in May, will bring about changes that will impact on all voluntary groups working with vulnerable people – not just those which require staff to take CRB checks.

CRU with support from the Home Office, will be explaining the changes at the seminars, with plenty of opportunity for you to ask questions of your own.

The seminars will take place in Cardiff on Tuesday 10 July and Rhyl on Wednesday 18 July.

You can download a programme from http://e2.ma/click/1ohnc/9m5i6c/x5vq4 or for further information email eventsadmin@wcva.org.uk - attendance is limited so act quickly.

Identity Checking

Although the ID checking guidelines will change from Monday 28 May we will be continuing to work to the current guidelines until we have received further guidance from the CRB concerning the external validation of identity. Until you are informed please follow the current procedures.

Identity Checking to Change

The CRB have announced that from 28 May their guidelines for identity checking will be strengthened in order to improve public protection.

The changes will make it more difficult for individuals to conceal previous criminal records by changing their identity and should enhance the good working practices that many organisations use when verifying and validating identity.

The focus will be on asking applicants to produce documents that they have acquired by undergoing stringent identity verification with the document issuer, such as the Identity and Passport Service or the DVLA.

The process itself will have three routes and includes the option to use a new external identity validation check where the applicant cannot provide the requested documentation. Details of this service are yet to be finalised by the CRB at this point.

The new guidelines will be run in parallel with the existing guidelines until the 31 August when the existing guidelines will cease to apply but we will be recommending to our service users to use the new guidelines from 28 May onwards.

For more information please see the CRB

Bogus Callers to Care Services Alert

CSSIW have issued an alert concerning the number of recent reports of people trying to gain access to care services including care homes and domiciliary care agencies.

Applicant Guide

The CRB have released new guidance to help applicants complete the application form. It explains the steps that must be taken to ensure that the application form is completed correctly, which should minimise errors and prevent forms being returned by CRU. The new guidance is available on the Directgov website and provides general rules for applicants, how to record information such as current and previous names and address history and ensuring the form is completed correctly. This should help minimise forms being sent through to CRU with errors on thus preventing delays in such forms being dealt with.

For more information Applicant Guide

CRB price increase

The CRB have announced that they are increasing the cost of an enhanced CRB check for paid employees to £44 effective from 06 April 2011. CRB checks for volunteers will continue to be free of charge which according to the CRB, provided a saving to the voluntary sector of approximately £32 million in 2010/2011.