DBS works with Skills for Care to support safer recruitment

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) and Skills for Care have been working together to provide free, specialised training to social care providers across the Midlands.

Around 300 people recently attended two successful workshops, and following these sessions in the Midlands, DBS and Skills for Care are now planning to provider further free training sessions, to support safer recruitment in social care.

Further workshops will be hosted in the Midlands in November, and following this, they plan to expand the training nationally.

The training aims to support people working across the adult social care sector, particularly those with recruitment or safeguarding responsibilities.

The most recent workshops were split across two sessions, each lasting 90 minutes, with one session focusing on disclosure and the other focusing on barring.

The disclosure workshop covered:

the different types of DBS checks
how legislation affects the type of role that can be applied for
the information contained on each type of DBS certificate, and how to evaluate this
the legal definition of ‘regulated activity’ and how this relates to DBS processes
The barring workshop covered barring referrals, the legal duty to refer, and what the process for barring an individual consists of.

The aim of both workshops was to give adult social care staff a better understanding of DBS checks and barring referrals, and how they support safer recruitment.

The training sessions are being delivered by DBS Regional Outreach service. This service provides organisations with a single point of contact for all DBS-related queries and questions, as well as the opportunity to access tailored, DBS training for their staff. The team also collates feedback to ensure future improvements can be made to DBS services and processes.

The DBS and Skills for Care training is being delivered by DBS Regional Outreach Adviser for the East Midlands, Lizzie Whittington. Lizzie said:

It has been fantastic to receive support from Skills for Care to deliver these workshops to such a range of organisations across the Midlands. I’m looking forward to continuing our work together later in the year, where we will have more workshops available in November.

Following the workshops, Lizzie has received numerous queries from attendees. Organisations based in the East Midlands can access free advice by contacting Lizzie via the Regional Outreach service.

A list of Regional Outreach advisers in other parts of the UK, can also be found in our Regional Outreach guidance.

Natalie Benton, Executive Director of Strategy and Performance at DBS, said:

DBS is pleased to support Skills for Care and adult social care providers in the Midlands with free training and support. This work helps to give organisations a better understanding of DBS checks and our role in barring people from certain roles if they pose a risk to children or vulnerable adults, and enables these employers to make safer recruitment choices.

The training was one of multiple ways in which Skills for Care and DBS have been working closely together, with DBS attending some of the Skills for Care Registered Managers Networks and regional manager events.

Renny Wodynska, Head of Area for the Midlands at Skills for Care, said:

We are delighted to be able to work closely with DBS to help provide this important information to providers. The training sessions were very well received, and we look forward to running more later in the year. We’re also in discussions to hopefully expand the training out nationally as well.

If you are interested in accessing DBS and Skills for care training, please visit the Skills for Care website.