DBS applications experiences

[DavidW]

I am conducting a review of DBS application providers and wondered whether anyone has any recommendations of companies providing online systems? I am obviously considering cost, fast turnaround and support. Has anyone else had an email with claims of 2- 24 hour turnaround? Is that possible?? - my last one took over 14 weeks!!!

We have also recently requested that all staff apply for the update service within the next 18 months so I am now looking for a service that will enable us to check for any changes in status for all staff, without having to type in the individual certificate numbers one by one into the update checking screen on the DBS system. I'd like to press a button every couple of months and get a report that tells me there have been no changes to the DBS status of any of my staff, or identify individuals whose status has changed. Does such a facility exist? I can't see much on the update service at all on the websites I have looked at so far. Am I the only one thinking about this? :0)

Many thanks

David

[Wildflowers]

Capita is good, though am waiting for an application sent on 14 October. I suggest you ask them about the things you wish to be able to do.

[Rea]

We've been using Capita, I'm not sure if we slipped though the net or whether nobody receives an email to say the checks are ready to be verified. We have 3 that were sitting and waiting for my input but I had no idea about it. Support when I need it is good, passwords and other 'Log on' details keep eluding me!

So really I dont know how long it should take!

[Rafa]

How much does Capita cost? Im finding some quite expensive... : (

[Verona]

Hi

Sorry to go slightly off the original question but I was wondering how often CRB/DBS should be renewed. My latest new staff have had DBS but I have other staff that had a CRB done more than 3 years ago. I have looked up various places to find out if they have to be renewed every three years but can't seem to find the right information. Ofsted site seems to contradict itself - or is it the way I'm reading it???

I use TMG or as it's now known BGB. posting if fine with them, no issues but I am about to do another one it online so who knows ????? when I asked them how often, they said every 3 years THEY THINK BUT THEY ARE NOT SURE.

Anybody know for sure - is it every three years?

V

[Mouseketeer]

Rafa - capita charged £52 pounds when new staff did them in May, but I think you may need to pay the update fee now at same time, £13'ish. Took less than a week to get outcome back

 

Verona - I pretty sure there is no requirement to redo them.

[Wildflowers]

Not every three years - there is no time-limit. (I looked into this last week.) However, Ofsted wrote in a document from September that DBS certificates issued more than 12 months earlier will be questioned in an inspection. I rang Ofsted about this but they refused to answer - they sent me to the LA, who sent me to the DBS/Home Office who sent me to Ofsted. (I also asked Capita about it, but they couldn't answer.)

[Rea]

There has never been a legal requirement to renew CRBs, it ws merely considered good practice. However I believe things changed a couple of years ago when the onus was put onto the management/committee to decide if they thought staff needed to renew.

Capita charge an admin fee of £8.50 to do the check for a 'free' volunteer, £52.29 I think our manager had to pay for hers.

[Rafa]

Thanks for Capita pricing........its been awhile since we had to dbs a new staff nember.....she will probably only be with us until end of summer term ( temporary contract). do you ask staff to pay or is that mean? seems mean but.... : /

[Wildflowers]

If she pays then she can take it with her to her new job, who may ask her to pay in any case as that seems to become the practice.

[DavidW]

Thanks for the varied pieces of information in the responses so far. I see my thread has been hijacked slightly! :0) I take it that not everyone is subscribing to the update service then? Is anyone actually checking the status of DBS certificates on an ongoing basis yet?

[Rea]

I'm not sure how the update service works to be honest. As its a new system we havent had need t use it and I dont recall seeing anything I could have signed up for when I filled in my own DBS.

[DavidW]

Rea, This is from our own guidance document -

 

Update service application can be made at the time of the DBS application, by providing the DBS check application number on the update service application screen-

https://secure.crbonline.gov.uk/crsc/apply?execution=e1s1

Alternatively, an application can be made on receipt of the DBS certificate but this has to be completed within 19 days of the issue of the certificate.

 

Hope that helps

 

David

[Rea]

Thanks for that David, I'll be sure to pass that onto staff and committee :1b

[lynned55]

3/4 weeks ago I did a DBS on 2 committee members for both we had to register them for the update service once their DBs was through. It said it was statutory now with no option not to but still had to be done within the same time span or the whole DBS would have to be re done. There was no charge for the update service as they were volunteers. However I'm really not too sure what is the point of the update service as for one of them 2 days after she had done all this, she was asked to redo a DBS with her local school. They insisted what she had was non transferable and wouldn't take her number, look at her certificate and said that what she had would be no good for them (she is listening to children read) despite the fact it had only been done days before!!

[Wildflowers]

However I'm really not too sure what is the point of the update service as for one of them 2 days after she had done all this, she was asked to redo a DBS with her local school. They insisted what she had was non transferable and wouldn't take her number, look at her certificate and said that what she had would be no good for them (she is listening to children read) despite the fact it had only been done days before!!

This is because of this paragraph in an Ofsted document that a provider accepting a transferable check will be questioned.

[DavidW]

Does this document help? -

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/325079/Update_service_employer_guide_v3.8.pdf

"Benefits to your employee -

• one DBS certificate is all you may ever need.
• take your DBS certificate from role to role within the same workforce"

[MarshaD]

I use capita varying speeds most were only a few weeks but one took about six weeks. Interested to read the querying after 12 months. I'm sure I read somewhere there was no expectation to check them routinely and that the three year thing was a myth. I wish they'd make their minds up!

[Wildflowers]

See page 8 in http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/disclosure-and-barring-service-dbs-checks-for-childcare-providers-who-register-ofsted

Where an employer has used an existing DBS check, inspectors will look at how the organisation has used the DBS guidance on assessing the risk. Inspectors will look at the evidence given by the employer about their steps towards complying with the DBS guidance. In particular, inspectors will check that the employer has:

- applied for a new enhanced DBS check, even if they are letting the person start work using an existing check

- noticed any unexplained gaps in a person’s employment and if this is the case, that they have not let the person start work until they have their own DBS check. (Employers should not use an existing DBS check if there has been a break of more than three months in service)

- checked the details on the existing DBS check using forms of identity for the person concerned, for example, they have cross-referenced address and date of birth details from other identity documents

- seen the original DBS certificate, not a photocopy, and tried to contact the person who requested the original check, to confirm if any other information was released through a separate letter. (If other information was released, the employer must not let the person start work until they have a new DBS check.)

- only accepted an existing DBS check if it is at the right level, for example they have not accepted a standard check if an enhanced check is needed

- not accepted an existing DBS check that is too old. (A DBS check does not last for an agreed length of time, but it is best to expect that an existing check is no older than 12 months.)

- made sure that the person does not have unsupervised access to children, until the new DBS check can confirm the person’s suitability.

If the employer cannot show that they have taken these steps, then the inspector will reflect this in the inspection judgement(s). If there is evidence that the employer has taken action in line with the DBS check guidance, then this will not affect the inspection judgement(s).

Edited November 15, 2014 by Wildflowers

[DavidW]

Is any of the above superceded by the DBS guidance for the update service which, as stated above, is supposed to enable the employee to "take your DBS certificate from role to role within the same workforce."

My understanding of the update service is that it is designed for precisely this purpose - to enable staff to start work immediately and not require a new DBS certificate for each new job within the same workforce. The employer checks the id of the employee and the original of their certificate and enters their certificate number into the update service and if there have been no changes, can be satisfied that the individual is suitable to work with children.

If this is not the case then what is the purpose of the update service? Which guidance is correct - DBS or Ofsted? Is it that the current employer can continuously check the status of an employee's DBS certificate but that he/she will need a new application on each change of job? - in which case the DBS guidance is incorrect! I am very confused.

[Wildflowers]

Ofsted refused twice to help me gain clarity about their document and told me to speak to the LA. I asked the LA who didn't know and sent me to someone else who didn't reply, so asked the DBS who asked me to contact Ofsted.

This has been discussed in another thread. You may want to have a look, David.

[noodledoodle81]

We have just realised that if an employee wants their DBS check to be transferrable between like for like jobs, they have to pay an annual fee of £13,on top of the cost of the DBS check, and should have organised it within 19 days of the initial DBS check. We therefore conclude that we are actually paying over £50 for exactly the same service that the original CRB checks gave us. To say we are disappointed is an understatement, we actually feel duped. We feel that we were led to believe that we were paying for a superior service, when in actual fact we are not. Where is it advertised that transferability requires an extra cost?

[Guest Nuby]

capita

[Ghu5]

Hi, my staff have crb numbers, do they need to have DBS checks done, it's been 6 years since they were done, I did mine last year and that was £52, to do all 5 staff is going to be quite costly, they all sign a disclosure form to state that nothing has changed in any way. I'm thinking it could be good practice to get redone. Where do they get theirs from though as Capita say they only do managers, childminders and persons working on domestic premises. We are a small local playgroup. Any help would be appreciated.thanks x

[korkycat]

gbg (formerly TMG) will do it. I'm currently trying to organise a new staff member's DBS with them.

korkycat

[Mouseketeer]

Hi Ghu5 and welcome, capita did our new staff ( assistants).