It’s usually best to be upfront with your employer if you know that your DBS check will throw up convictions or other information. Minor convictions for shoplifting or being drunk in your distant past aren’t likely to be held against you more recent convictions or a string of convictions might. Employers will look at the information presented on your DBS certificate and decide whether or not to offer you the job. Employers have a bit of flexibility over disclosure information and it’s not illegal to employ someone to work in a care home or school if they have a criminal record. There is a full list of jobs which require enhanced disclosure available online, and in general these include jobs and voluntary roles which involve working with children, in care homes, hospitals or social work. The types of jobs which require enhanced disclosure checking are set by the government – employers can’t pick and choose who gets checked and who doesn’t. The aims of all of the different bodies are the same to stop people with a serious criminal past being employed with children or vulnerable adults. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the systems are different, and similar checks are done by Disclosure Scotland under the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme or AccessNI.

Checks used to be carried out by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and people will still talk about having a CRB done. Most of the publicity about police checks and criminal records are about the most detailed level of DBS, the Enhanced Disclosure.Ī lot of the confusion about DBS comes from the fact that terms have changed over time.

Many people aren’t aware that there are different levels of checking carried out by the Disclosure and Barring Service and think that the same types of checks are carried out on everyone. Register for corporate DBS Register your organisation to process basic, standard and enhanced DBS checks.

Start my DBS check For individuals to apply for a Basic DBS Check.

Enhanced dbs check