Recruitment of Ex-Offenders Policy & Guidance - April 2024

Types of DBS checks

There are 4 types of DBS checks which the Council may request:

Basic Disclosure - Shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions only. Any post is eligible for this type of check if it is deemed proportionate and relevant for the role.

Spent convictions and cautions will not be included in a Basic level criminal records check and do not need to be disclosed by applicants applying for a job role which requires a Basic DBS check.

Standard Disclosure - Shows spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands, and final warnings.

Enhanced Disclosure - Shows the same as a standard check plus any information held by the police that is considered relevant to the role.

Enhanced Disclosure with barred lists - Shows the same as an enhanced check plus whether the applicant is on the list of people barred from working with these service users.

 

For enhanced DBS checks with barring certificate:

Children’s workforce – provides access to a check of the Children’s barred list

Adults’ workforce – provides access to a check of the Adults’ barred list

Children’s and Adults’ workforce - provides access to a check of the Children’s and Adults’ barred lists. These are for roles which work with both children and adults at risk.

Other workforce - provides access to a check of the Children’s and Adults’ barred lists. These are roles which do not specifically relate to working with children and/or adults.

 

For job roles where a DBS certificate at either Standard or Enhanced level is requested, these checks will normally show spent and unspent convictions and cautions. However, certain old or minor offences may not be disclosed on DBS certificates. These are known as ‘protected’ offences. Protected convictions and cautions are removed by a process known as ‘filtering’ so that they are not disclosed on a DBS certificate.

The Council can only ask an individual about convictions and cautions that are not protected.

For further information, refer to: DBS filtering guide.

There is a list of offences that will always be disclosed on a Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate (unless they relate to a youth caution). These are known as ‘specified offences’ and are usually of a serious violent or sexual nature or are relevant for safeguarding children and adults at risk.

All convictions resulting in a custodial sentence, whether or not suspended, will always be disclosed.

Youth cautions, warnings and reprimands will not be disclosed automatically on a Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate.

For those 18 or over at the time of the offence an adult conviction will be removed from a DBS certificate if:

• 11 years have elapsed since the date of conviction; and
• it is the person’s only offence, and
• it did not result in a custodial sentence

Even then, it will only be removed if it does not appear on the list of offences which will never be removed from a certificate. If a person has more than one offence, then details of all their convictions will always be included.

An adult caution will be removed after 6 years have elapsed since the date of the caution - and if it does not appear on the list of offences relevant to safeguarding.

Convictions, except that the elapsed time period is 5.5 years. The same rules apply as for adult cautions, except that the elapsed time period is 2 years.

If applicants are barred from engaging in regulated activity with a vulnerable group, it is an offence if they seek, offer or engage in regulated activity with a group that they are barred from working or volunteering with. Any such attempts by barred individuals will be reported to the Police.

Successful applicants will be required to consent to subsequent criminal record checks during employment as deemed appropriate by the Council or regulatory bodies.

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