Safer Recruitment and DBS

It also sends a clear message to the wider community that should they attempt to do so, such people will be identified and prevented from taking on roles of trust.

Safer Recruitment Resources

For an overview of Safer Recruitment within the Church of England and a checklist of elements involved in the process, please see Section 5 of the Parish Safeguarding Handbook. The key policy and guidance document agreed by the House of Bishops is Safer Recruitment Practice Guidance.  On the Church of England website in the Templates and Resources section, under Safer Recruitment, there a number of useful templates including a model volunteer job role, an application form, model interview questions and a letter of appointment.

Confidential Declaration form - At the start of the process where an individual is going to work with vulnerable people, they should be asked to complete a ‘Confidential Declaration’. In essence this form asks them if there is any reason why they should not be working in the role they are applying for. It can help identify any issues that might need resolving at an early stage. 

Click here to view our Training and DBS Matrix

Disclosure and Barring Service

A Disclosures and Barring Service (DBS) check is one element of safer recruitment as it provides criminal records information about a person held by the police and government departments. There are different levels of DBS checks (Basic, Enhanced, and Enhanced with Barring) which can be applied for depending on the role the person is going to be undertaking.

We have designed a matrix which gives an indication of the minimum level of check required for each role:

Click here to download a copy of the Training and DBS Matrix

Within Salisbury Diocese we use a company called APCS to process our checks. 

Your Safeguarding Microsite

Within Salisbury Diocese each Parish has their own 'Microsite' which is essentially a dashboard with DBS information about your staff and volunteers (unfortunately this is not yet available for the Channel Islands).

	To access the Microsite click on the image to the left. Or for more information regarding the Microsite including some short training videos, please click here.