Disclosure and barring service information for managers

Employers can check the criminal records of employees or potential employees to help make safer recruitment decisions.

We now have an online process for completing Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) applications.

This applies to:

candidates attending an interview who will need a DBS check to work in the post
existing employees within your service who need to carry out a DBS re-check
applicants who we do not employ directly, for example, volunteers, foster carers, adopters or school governors

There is a three step process for completing an online DBS check.

Step one - initiate the check

As the recruiting manager, you need to initiate the DBS check for any potential employee. You can do this by logging into our new online system and selecting 'Start a new check.'

Step two - verifying evidence

Verifying evidence for a job candidate will usually take place at the job interview and the candidate should come to the interview with their evidence.

If you did not very a candidate's documents at interview, you must arrange a time to meet and check their documents as soon as possible.

You must view the original documentation for your candidate and take copies to upload into the online application. You can find a list of the acceptable documents on the government website. We have found the fastest documents to process are passports, driving licences and birth certificates. If you are not sure what documents you can accept, contact us for help.

You should take copies of the candidate's documents and save them to your desktop. The file must not have any glare and the candidate's face must be visible in any photographs.

You cannot continue the online application until you have verified the evidence.

Step three - applicant completes their form

The candidate will be sent a link by email to complete their part of the online application process.

Step four - submitting the check to DBS

Once we get the candidate's and manager's forms, we will securely send the information to the Disclosure and Barring Service to process. When they have finished the check, there will be an email through Zellis to confirm clearance.

If the DBS certificate includes information that needs to be considered, you must get the original certificate from the candidate and authenticate it. You can authenticate it by checking security features such as:

a crown seal watermark repeated down the right hand side of the certificate which you can see on the surface and if you hold the certificate up to a light source
a background design including the word disclosure that appears in a wavy pattern across both sides of the document

If you have a candidate's certificate that you have verified, you must contact the DBS team as soon as possible within seven days for guidance on what to do next.

Certificate of Good Conduct

As part of safer recruitment, any candidate who has lived outside the UK in the past five years must provide a Certificate of Good Conduct from the country where they lived. This applies to UK nationals and foreign nationals. This is because a DBS check will only cover time spent in the UK.

This means you need to ask your candidate if they have lived abroad when you are verifying their evidence. If they have, you must tell them to provide this certificate. You can find out where and how to get a Certificate of Good Conduct on the government website.

Further information

The DBS check is only one part of recruiting and working within safe and robust operating systems. We advise you to complete the recruitment and selection and the safer recruitment online learning packages available in the council Learning Zone.

DBS volunteer verification for managers

The DBS will allow a free DBS application to be submitted for certain roles only. To be eligible for a free check, the position applied for must meet the definition of a volunteer:

A person engaged in an activity which involves spending time, unpaid (except for travel and other approved out-of-pocket expenses), doing something which aims to benefit some third party other than or in addition to a close relative.

Criteria for meeting the volunteer definition

To help you determine whether the role meets the definition, please answer the following questions:

Is the applicant on a work placement or undertaking a course of study that will lead to a qualification/full-time role?
Is the applicant a paid foster carer or a member of a foster carer household?
Is the applicant benefitting financially from the role they are undertaking (except for travel and other approved out-of-pocket expenses)?

If your answer is 'Yes' to any of the above questions the role does not meet the definition of a volunteer and is therefore not eligible for a free check. In this case do not complete the verification form for volunteers. You should complete the verification form for paid roles instead - see stage two above.

If you have answered 'No' to all of the questions, please complete and return the manager verification form for volunteers.

When a registered body submits an inappropriate volunteer application, it creates a financial burden on other fee-paying applicants and is in contravention of the registered body conditions of registration. National DBS will take action if they believe that inappropriate volunteer applications are being submitted knowingly.

Useful examples

Roles previously recorded as 'volunteer classroom assistant' or 'volunteer teaching assistant' are used to describe a situation where a student is coming into school to mentor/tutor children and that is being carried out as part of a qualification/course are not volunteering roles. The reason for this is that the student is going to gain a qualification. If this applies do not complete the verification form for volunteers. Please complete the verification form for paid roles - see stage two above and record this as 'work experience' instead.

Roles where there is no benefit to the student in terms of a qualification and the only benefit is to the school would meet the definition of a volunteer. In this case, you should complete the verification form for volunteers and record this as a 'school volunteer helper'.

Roles including 'parent helper in school' or 'school trip helper', where the school is the only party who are benefiting and the person helping out are eligible for volunteer roles. In these cases, you should complete the verification form for volunteers and record these as 'school volunteer helper'.

Volunteer transport companies such as Dial-a-Ride who transport individuals to receive social care or health care or to transport children to school, and receive no recompense are eligible for volunteer roles. In this case, you should complete the verification form for volunteers and record this as 'volunteer driver school/social care' or 'passenger assist school/social care'.

Foster carers and members of the same household aged over 18 years. This activity is voluntary, but foster carers usually receive payment for these activities and therefore it is deemed that neither foster carers nor other members of the household are entitled to free checks. If this applies, do not complete the verification form for volunteers. Please complete the verification form for paid roles instead - see stage two above.

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