DBS Checks for Religious Organisations
If you work for an organisation in religion and faith, safeguarding is of utmost importance and DBS Checks (formerly known as CRB checks) play a key role.
Certain roles within religion organisations may require a DBS check depending on the type of work done by the individual. This would apply to both paid and volunteer positions.
DBS for Religious Members Working with Children
Any unsupervised role that provides any of the following to children will require an Enhanced Level DBS check:
Supervising, teaching, training, instructing, caring for, providing advice/guidance on well-being, or driving a vehicle only for children
Individuals who carry out this work infrequently (but more than once) will require an Enhanced Level DBS check
Individuals who carry out this work more than three times a month or overnight (between 2am and 6am where there may be face-to-face contact with children) will require an Enhanced DBS check with the Child Barred List check.
DBS for Religious Members Working with Adults
Any unsupervised role that provides any of the following to children will require an Enhanced Level DBS check:
Supervising, teaching, training, instructing, caring for, providing advice/guidance on well-being, or driving a vehicle only for children
Individuals who carry out this work infrequently (but more than once) will require an Enhanced Level DBS check
Individuals who carry out this work more than three times a month or overnight (between 2am and 6am where there may be face-to-face contact with children) will require an Enhanced DBS check with the Child Barred List check.
DBS for Religious Members Working with Adults
Religious members working with adults will be less likely to need an Enhanced Level DBS check. However, as part of your work for a religious organisation or faith centre you may support members of the community with certain regulated activity tasks, and therefore would require an Enhanced Level DBS check with an Adult Barred List check. Examples of this would be:
Individuals who convey adults to or from anywhere they would be receiving health care, personal care or social work, who because of their age, illness or disability require this help.
Individuals who provide day-to-day help to adults with running their homes because their age, illness or disability means they need this help, and where it includes at least one of the following:
Managing their cash
Paying their bills
Doing their shopping
Illustrative example: A volunteer who collects shopping lists and the cash to pay for the shopping from older adults’ homes, who then does the shopping on their behalf, would be engaging in regulated activity.
If you are carrying out activities which are in the DBS’s definition of work with adults, you may require an Enhanced DBS check without an Adult Barred List check depending on the frequency with which you undertake this work.
This is defined as:
Providing assistance, advice or guidance to adults that fall within certain groups set out in the DBS Adult Workforce guidance
Conveying adults that fall within these same groups
Carrying out any form of work or volunteering in a care home (for the purposes of the Care Standards Act 2000) which is exclusively or mainly for adults, that gives the person carrying out the work the opportunity to have contact with the adults resident at that care home
The person carrying out the activity must be doing it:
At any time on more than three days in any period of 30 days
At any time between 2 am and 6 am, where the activity gives the person the opportunity to have face-to-face contact with the adult
At least once a week on an ongoing basis
An example of the groups that fall within the DBS Adult Workforce guidance are:
Adults living in residential accommodation because of their care or nursing needs
Adults living in sheltered housing
Adults living in accommodation provided because they are or have been a pupil in a residential special school
Adults in receipt of care or assistance at home because of their age, health or disability
A full list of these adults can be found in Annex 1 of The DBS ADULT WORKFORCE GUIDE found here (see paragraphs 9 & 10).
Why eSafeguarding?
At eSafeguarding we pride ourselves on our quick and easy DBS processing systems. Also, we will validate data as soon as the information is entered, with applicants being prompted to correct invalid information as they go. This ensures that there are no missed fields, no mistakes, and no returns.
Our team members work tirelessly to provide you with a swift, secure, personalised, and compliant service.
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