In response to a recent article about DBS wait times published by Schools Week, our Safer Recruitment Manager reached out to our colleagues at the Disclosure and Barring Service to share their perspective on the topic.

Please note the following content has been written by the Disclosure & Barring Service and not EPM. 

DBS continue to perform well within Education

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) plays a crucial role in safeguarding our society by helping employers make safer recruitment decisions. 

There are few places where it is more important to ensure that employees are correctly vetted than in the education sector, and DBS is committed to protecting all vulnerable groups, including children, from harm. We aim to work quickly, ensuring applicants receive a quality service, but never cutting corners, as this could endanger public safety. 

We process a huge amount of DBS checks for the education sector and carry out each check to the high standard that is necessary to adequately safeguard the most vulnerable. 

Our statistics

Since April 2022, DBS has issued more than 1.7 million Enhanced DBS certificates for staff and volunteers working in the education sector. Our staff are working tirelessly to turn these around as quickly as possible and get suitable candidates into their roles as soon as we can.

DBS is performing well at this. Our average turnaround time for Enhanced DBS checks in the education sector is 9.4 days. The Government Service Standard sets us a target of processing 80% of all Enhanced DBS checks within 14 days. DBS is working hard to exceed its targets within the education sector, and in fact, 84% of Enhanced DBS checks were completed within 14 days. 

Inevitably, there will always be cases where certain checks encounter delays, but this will not be the experience for the vast majority of applicants. In the most recent school year, some applications in a small number of counties did take longer than usual to process at the stage 4 (police check) part of the process. This was due to extra demand for DBS checks and police resource shortages. 

Of course, we deeply regret the impact of any delays in our service, no matter how few people were affected, and we are ensuring all necessary steps are being taken to combat any future delays.

Our actions

The National Police Chief’s Council (NPCC) agrees that, whilst a small number of forces are experiencing difficulties, overall police performance is strong. NPCC and DBS are working diligently together with any struggling police forces to help them get back on track. 

For example, DBS has agreed extra funding for more police force staff, forces are offering midweek and weekend overtime whilst the new staff are being trained, and forces who are in a good position workload-wise are supporting others to complete checks.

DBS issues reports to forces who have cases which are over 60 days old, so they can focus their resources on these, and also provides reports that identify cases that can be dealt with quickly, to help prevent any backlog from forming. 

We have a positive relationship with the police forces, and we will continue to work together to provide the best possible service for DBS check applicants in a timely manner. We engage closely with OFSTED, Estyn (Wales) and the Department of Education, none of which have raised any concerns with us about delays in education sector recruitment.

Our commitment

We firmly believe DBS is performing well in the education sector, and our performance against our targets backs this up. From a safeguarding perspective, it is so important that we allow police forces the time to make considered decisions, to ensure that DBS checks are processed correctly. 

Having an average turnaround time of less than 10 days for Enhanced DBS checks is a great achievement, and we intend to keep this up. 

There is no room for error when it comes to the safety of children and other vulnerable groups, and we are committed to helping to ensure schools and education are as safe as they can be.

DBS will continue to work hard to meet and exceed its targets in the education sector and continue its vital work of safeguarding the public. 

You can contact the DBS through using the details below: 

💻 gov.uk/dbs

Twitter and Facebook: @DBSgovuk

LinkedIn: Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

If you’re looking for advice about EPM's DBS service and safer recruitment, or would like to learn more about our policies, letters and training, please talk to us.