Principles around disclosure checks
Staff filling family support, community volunteer and/or therapeutic parenting roles require an enhanced disclosure check carrying out.
Staff filling ‘administrative’ roles (national team, business support, referrals team, programme directors) require a basic disclosure check carrying out.
If a prospective staff member has an enhanced DBS as a volunteer then another check is not required. However when it comes to renewal (every three years for DBS) then this must be completed as a staff member.
The check will be renewed every three years. If a staff members disclosure check is ‘overdue’ then this should be completed as soon as possible. This should be raised with the SLT lead and the People and Culture Team.
- Exception for Scotland where the PVG system doesn’t allow this
For staff employed by partner organisations such as ImagineIF , The Shed, The Belfrey etc. they will have responsibility for carrying out the check but will provide evidence of this to Safe Families
For placement students, their disclosure check will be under the auspices of their education provider. Again, evidence of this must be provided.
People and Culture to liaise with regional disclosure lead regarding new staff members who need checks and ID to be seen by disclosure lead.
If a staff member starts with Safe Families and no disclosure check has been returned then the staff member can not undertake solo visits and must be supervised by a colleague.
Process
Hiring manager notifies People and Culture of a new employee/change of role or the database informs line manager and individual of an expiring disclosure check 6 months prior to expiry date.
Line Manager request the disclosure check from the lead recruiter in the relevant region. (Or follow up with partner organisation/university in the case of non-directly employed staff) - see below for lead recruiter in each area
Lead recruiter processes the check and informs Line Manager or People and Culture Team of disclosure details ( Date the disclosure check was requested, date we received it back, the disclosure number and the result e.g.. "clean") so this information can be inputted into the database.
Responsibilities
People and Culture
- Request disclosure check from regional lead recruiter both for new and those changing roles
- Use the weekly database reminder email to follow up with lead recruiter, line manager and individual as needed until completed those checks with are missing or overdue
- Request, follow up and record details of disclosure checks for partner organisation staff and students.
Recruitment leads
- Process disclosure check in a timely manner upon receipt of request. Carry out ID check as needed and update the details on the staff database at point of processing and completing. (NOTE the staff database system is being updated to allow this - currently please send details back to line manager / people and culture team who will input on staff database)
- For DBS checks - if there is confusion as to when the last check was completed the lead can go to the 31:8 archives and by searching for the name it will bring up when they last check completed
Partner organisations
- Process and supply disclosure checks for their staff who work on Safe Families.
Line managers
- Inform People and Culture of new staff appointed/role changed.
- When receive notification that staff members check is due to be renewed in 6 months, contact lead recruiter to enable check to be completed.
- Read and follow up on reminder emails regarding disclosure checks.
- Ensure disclosure check is marked complete as appropriate on the staff database before authorising lone working for new staff members.
Database
- Notify line manager, individual of disclosure checks that are due in 6 months
- Notify line manager, individual and People and Culture of missing/outdated disclosure checks
Recruitment Leads
The listed recruitment leads are currently:
| Central | Dale Newman |
| North East and Cumbria | Nicola Wells |
| North West | Caroline Hetherington |
| South West and Wales | Dawn Holmes |
| Northern Ireland | David Templeton |
| Scotland | Jocelyn Crawford |
| South East and London | Nick Harris |
Scenarios
Scenario 1
Where an individual has an enhanced DBS for their role as volunteer and is then recruited to a staff role the original enhanced DBS stands and can enable them to take on the full staff role immediately. (provided the same level of check has been undertaken so where this is enhanced we are fine, update service can't be used but I suspect that is very rare for volunteers). However once the time comes for renewal we would need to move to staff/paid work at the higher cost.
Scenario 2
As part of their recruitment a member of staff has received their enhanced DBS they later choose to become a volunteer alongside their paid role, provided this is enhanced then they don't need a new version. However, should they choose to use their home as part of support a new enhanced DBS would be needed.
Scenario 3
For staff who do not have direct face to face contact with children and families but may speak to them by phone and do have access to their sensitive and confidential information a standard DBS is required- this would cover RACs and PDs and National Team.