DBS Checks - Organisation Set Up

Disclosing and Barring Service (DBS) checks are another tool your organisation might use to determine the suitability of your volunteers.  Not all the volunteers you have helping will be eligible to have a DBS check done on them, for example a DBS check can only be completed on volunteers who are at least 16 years of age at the time of the check.

If you are unsure if you are eligible to complete a check on certain roles within your organisation please read the following Government guidance

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dbs-eligibility-guidance 

When setting up the roles within your organisation you will be able to set if a DBS check is required and at what level.

Setting up DBS checks

The first thing your organisation will need to do is to decide from what age your volunteers will need a DBS check.  This information goes into the first section and is a required field.  

It then needs to be decided how long DBS checks will be considered valid if the certificate has not been registered with the update service.  Official guidance suggests that checks should be redone every three years but some organisations may wish this to be more frequent.  As the update service offers up-to-date information on a DBS check, volunteers who provide details of a certificate registered on the update service will not need to complete a new check unless the level of the certificate is no longer sufficient for their role (e.g. they have an enhanced check registered on the update service but they are now applying for a role which requires an enhanced check with barring list information) or if the update service shows that the old certificate is no longer valid and contains new information.

Your organisation can choose whether it will accept a DBS check which has been issued by another organisation.  SignMeUp will apply the same rules on how long these certificates remain valid as to ones issued by your organisation.

Role Descriptions

Each DBS certificate which is issued by your organisation will have a role printed upon them.  You can set two different role descriptions.  One for the enhanced DBS checks and one for the enhanced with barring list information checks.  These role descriptions will be presented during the check and will be used as justification for the type of check requested.  The descriptions need to be general enough that it can cover a range of different roles, e.g. ‘Children’s Sports Coach’ rather than ‘Children’s Football Coach’ but cannot be overly vague, e.g ‘volunteer’.

Document checkers

SignMeUp will automatically lead volunteers who require a DBS check, and have not provided details of an acceptable check, to complete the DBS form.  Once this form is completed they will need to complete a document check with someone from your organisation in order for you to determine their identity.

You are able to assign people within your organisation as a document checker in the ‘manage document checkers’ section.  You can create new document checkers by clicking on the create button.  If you are part of an Organisation Group, this functionality may be restricted and you might need to contact your Group Admin Lead to add DBS checkers. The people you assign as document checkers will need an understanding of your organisations DBS policy and have read the government guidance on how to complete document checks via route one (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-identity-checking-guidelines/id-checking-guidelines-for-standardenhanced-dbs-check-applications-from-1-july-2021).

Anyone you appoint as a document checker will need to have been assigned as an admin and given ‘DBS’ as their permission.  If their only role for your organisation is document checks then only assign them the DBS permission as this will only allow them to access the information given within the DBS form completed by the volunteer.

You can choose multiple document checkers which can be of benefit if your organisation covers a wide area, you know you will be processing a large number of DBS checks or your document checkers are limited on the time they are available.

Automated emails

Once the volunteer has completed the registration form for the event they will be prompted to complete the DBS form (if they require one).  They will be shown a link which will take them directly to the form.  If they choose not to complete at that point they will be sent reminder emails.  The first reminder will come 2 hours after the submit the volunteer registration and then a reminder each week for a total of three weeks.

There is further information please see the DBS check section.