Enhanced DBS Check with Barred List Check

Barred List information is not routinely provided in an Enhanced Check and can only be requested for those positions or activities listed under the definition of regulated activity in the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (as amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act in 2012).

An Enhanced DBS Check with Barred ListCheck (either Children or Adults or Children and Adults) searches against criminal records and other sources, including the PNC. The check may reveal convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings and includes a check of whether the individual is barred from working with Children, Adults or both) depending on the appropriate workforce.

Definitions of Regulated Activity

Children and Young People

Work of a specified nature which involves close and unsupervised contact with children which occurs frequently/regularly in a specified place.

• Specified role/work e.g. a Teacher, Learning Support Assistant, Midday Supervisor
• Specified nature e.g. teaching, training, care, supervision, advice, treatment
• Close work which involves close proximity to a child and allows the possibility of a relationship to be built (including online)
• Unsupervised there is no-one overseeing the activity who has had a DBS and barred list check (i.e. someone who has been checked for undertaking Regulated Activity)
• Frequency Once a week or more often
• Specified place e.g. a school, youth club, care home

1. Unsupervised activities: teaching, training, instructing, caring for or supervising children, or providing advice / guidance on well-being, or driving a vehicle only for children.
2. Work for a limited range of establishments (‘specified places’), with opportunity for contact, for example schools, children's homes, childcare premises (but not work by supervised volunteers).

Work under (1) or (2) is Regulated Activity only if done regularly. In this context, ‘regular’ means carried out by the same person frequently (once a week or more often), or on 4 or more days in a 30-day period (or in some cases, overnight).

1. Relevant personal care, for example washing or dressing; or health care by or supervised by a professional, even if done once.

Adults

The definition of Regulated Activity relating to adults no longer labels adults as ‘vulnerable’. Instead, the definition identifies the activities which, if any adult requires them, lead to that adult being considered vulnerable at that particular time.

The focus is on the activities required by the adult and not on the setting received, nor on the personal characteristics or circumstances of the adult receiving the activities. There is no longer a requirement for a person to do the activities a certain number of times before they are engaging in Regulated Activity. Any time a person engages in the activities set out below, they are engaging in regulated activity.

There are six categories of people who will fall within the new definition of regulated activity (and so will anyone who provides day to day management or supervision of those people). A broad outline of these categories is set out below:

• The provision of health care by a health care professional, or by a person acting under the direction or supervision of a health care professional (such as a health care assistant in a hospital or care home)
• The provision of relevant personal care (washing, dressing, toilet, eating, drinking)
• The provision of social work or community care services by social workers to adults who are clients or potential clients
• The provision of assistance in relation to general household matters for an adult who needs that assistance because of age, illness or disability, (e.g. managing a person’s cash, paying bills or shopping for someone)
• Any relevant assistance in the conduct of an adult’s own affairs, (e.g. under an enduring power of attorney)
• Transportation in certain circumstances which is needed because of age, illness or disability, although the Government has pointed out that this will not include family and friends or taxi drivers

Examples:

1. A care assistant in a care home who cuts and files an adult’s nails as the adult cannot do it themselves, because, for example, they cannot see well enough, would be engaging in regulated activity.

2. A beauty therapist who attends a day care centre once a week and provides manicures for anyone who would like one, instead of for people who need them because of their age, illness or disability, is not engaging in regulated activity.

3. A volunteer who prepares and serves a meal to an adult in their own home (but does not feed the adult) is not engaging in regulated activity. To be engaged in regulated activity you must provide physical assistance to the person, for example spoon feeding that person, or you must be prompting and supervising (for example, prompting and supervising a person with dementia, because without it they would not eat), or you must be training or instructing (for example, teaching a person who has suffered a stroke to eat using adapted cutlery).

4. A health care assistant on a hospital ward who feeds an adult because they are too frail to feed themselves would be engaging in regulated activity.

5. A worker in a care home who reminds a person with dementia to eat their lunch, and ensures they do so is in regulated activity.

Summary

Any time a person engages in one of the activities above, a DBS check is required as regulated activity is being undertaken. - even if the activity occurs only once.

The requirement for a DBS check is based not on the characteristics of the adult but the activities being undertaken.