Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) guide

You can apply for a fast-tracked passport: www.gov.uk/get-a-passport-urgently

You can apply for a provisional driving licence. It currently costs £34 and the licence should arrive within one week if you apply online. It may take longer if DVLA need to make additional checks.

You could use a Bank Statement or a letter from Student Finance.

A Bank Statement must have been posted to you (the DBS will not accept online or printed statements), if you contact your Bank, they are usually happy to post a statement to you.

A letter from Student Finance must be the initial letter that is sent to you which shows the amount you are borrowing. A letter from Student Finance is classed as a ‘Financial Statement’ on your DBS application.

The DBS requires you to confirm your current full name including all: forenames, middle names(s) and surnames. You will also be asked to declare any previous/additional names that you have used, or have been known as since birth. 

Any spelling variations used in an official document or on a previous DBS application should be included within the application. See examples below: 

• Philip known as Phill
• Jonathan known as Jon or John
• Victoria known as Vicky
• Suzanne or Susan known as Sue or Su 
• Vicky spelt as Vickie

Jones-Smith used without the hyphen as Jones Smith

Generally, we are not in a position to give advice directly. The majority of cautions and convictions will not affect your ability to work with children or vulnerable adults. However, serious crimes, for example those involving children or vulnerable adults, offences of a sexual nature, serious violence or dealing drugs, could act as an obstacle (list not exhaustive).

If you have concerns about whether or not your conviction, caution or investigation will prevent you from undertaking a teacher training programme or a placement, you can seek advice from one of a number of organisations, including: Citizens Advice Bureau, a solicitor, Rehabilitation of Offenders organisation (e.g. Jobcheck, NACRO). You can also contact the relevant Professional Regulatory Body, e.g the Department for Education (DfE) for Initial Teacher Training, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) for Social Work and Operating Department Practice, the General Medical Council (GMC) for Medicine, or the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) for Nursing/Midwifery.

We are only able to accept a previously issued DBS check if the applicant also subscribed to the DBS Update Service.

The DBS aims to complete 90% of Enhanced Disclosures within four weeks, and 100% within 60 days. It is your responsibility to initiate a complaint with the DBS if the disclosure is not received within this 60 day guideline.

Please note, Edge Hill University has no control over the length of time a disclosure application takes to complete. In certain cases, the DBS are not able to meet their 60 day target for a number of reasons. For example, if you have a common surname it can take time for the Police to distinguish between one person and another, especially if two people with the same name share the same date of birth.

Other reasons for delay can be if the applicant has lived at several addresses in different areas of the country, or simply if your application is made at a particularly busy time of year. Edge Hill University accepts no responsibility for the time a disclosure application takes to process. If a delay in the disclosure application results in a significant delay in enrolment Edge Hill University will attempt to find an alternative satisfactory solution for all parties concerned. Unfortunately, however, this cannot always be guaranteed.

Once the checks have been completed you will receive a copy of your Disclosure certificate. This will be sent to the address you provided on your application form. If you change address after you have submitted your form, you should make arrangements for the Disclosure to be redirected to your new address.

If there are no convictions or cautions listed you need take no further action. Do not contact us when you receive your Disclosure certificate, but keep it safe, ready for placements as the school, hospital or employer you undertake your placement with may ask you to produce it.

You should keep your certificate safe as you may be required to produce it at any time during your placement by the employer or other organisation where you are working or volunteering.

Edge Hill University cannot accept responsibility for any circumstances arising out of the loss of your Enhanced Disclosure certificate, but we will work with you to minimise the impact of this, and facilitate your application for a new Enhanced Disclosure. All costs associated with this will be paid by you.

When a DBS check is undertaken, the police authorities in the UK check all records going back to childhood for an individual. Where an applicant was born outside the UK and/or has lived or worked outside the UK, then it is expected that an application will be made by you to the appropriate authorities in the relevant country or countries to establish clearance. You need to be aware that this can be a lengthy process and that this needs to be started as soon as possible.

Please note the Edge Hill University is not able to make these applications on your behalf. You must do this yourself. This can be a daunting process and we would advise you to contact the relevant country’s embassy in London for advice on how to obtain the relevant document.

Not all countries have a centralised police record and are not able to produce a statement of your conduct. In these circumstances, we will work with you to help you obtain as much supporting evidence as possible.

If you have paid for the check but not completed the DBS application we will be able to provide a refund. However if the DBS application has been completed and reached the DBS, we would not be able to provide a refund.

If you are subscribed to the Update Service, you should not need to apply for a new check provided that the previous check was Enhanced, and the checking of appropriate barred lists matches the requirements of the course for which you have applied for.

We need to run the check on the DBS Website to ensure that the previous check is still valid and completed at the required level. In order to do this, we must have sight of the original copy of your Disclosure Certificate, which you registered with the Update Service. Please either bring the certificate to the Admissions Office in person (office hours are 08:45 – 17:00, Monday to Friday) or you can post your certificate to The Admissions Office, Edge Hill University, St. Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire. L39 4QP.

Yes. If you are not subscribed to the Update Service, we cannot accept your previous check irrespective of how recent it is. However, if your previous check was complete less than 30 days ago, you should still have the option to subscribe to the Update Service which could allow your previous check to become transferable.

We do not currently require our applicants to subscribe to the Update Service after obtaining the DBS check for Edge Hill, but we encourage you to do so. If you are planning to obtain employment, either during or after your studies, which involves working with children and/or vulnerable adults you would find this service very useful as it may save you money in the future.

If you do decide to subscribe to the Update Service you need to wait until the check is complete and you receive your DBS certificate.

You will be required to attend a panel meeting. Local arrangements are in place for all panels. However, the panel will normally include Edge Hill University staff and an external practise partner. In some cases, such as franchise programmes, a partner representative may also be part of the panel.

Prior to the panel you will be asked to provide a written statement outlining the specific information relating to the caution or conviction.

The purpose of this meeting is to consider all aspects of the disclosure, including spent convictions, cautions and reprimands. The panel will ascertain whether the conviction or caution is likely to prevent you from working with children or vulnerable adults and to address professional issues. They will also assess if you demonstrate the professional qualities required to meet the professional standard and have due regard to the requirements of the professional regulator.

Attendance at the panel meeting is mandatory in order to meet the entry condition of ‘satisfactory DBS clearance’. If you do not attend the panel meeting, your admission or enrolment will not be confirmed and you will not be able to commence/continue with your programme of study, and the University will withdraw their offer of a place on the programme.

The Panel may conclude that the information on your DBS Enhanced Disclosure is not satisfactory and that you do not satisfy the requirements for entry to the programme and will, in such cases, withdraw the offer of a place on the programme. In certain circumstances, the University may also refer your details to the appropriate Professional Regulatory Body (eg DfE, NMC, GSCC, etc) as required by the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and the Independent Safeguarding Authority.

In relation to professional issues, the panel will assess your personal qualities, insight and reflection through questioning. They may ask you to think about how you would respond in real life scenarios or answer certain questions when applying for future posts where the employer requires a DBS Disclosure certificate. Under the DBS’s ‘Filtering’ process certain offences may be classed as ‘Spent’ or ‘Not Relevant’, depending on the position applied for. For further information please visit the DBS website.

You will receive a letter from the University to confirm the panel decision.

If the decision is to allow you onto the programme, you are advised to keep the letter safe as you may need it throughout the duration of your programme. When attending placements the provider may ask to see your copy of the DBS Enhanced Disclosure at any time, so you are advised to take the letter which confirms the University’s decision with you.

If the panel decision is that your caution/conviction deems you unsuitable for the programme you have applied for, the reasons for the decision will be outlined in the letter.

You will have 10 days from the date of the letter in which to appeal against the decision.  To appeal you should submit a DBS appeal form to the Director of Governance & Assurance and Clerk to Governors.

You should note that appeals can only be made on the following grounds:

• unreasonableness of the decision
• procedural failure
• new evidence that, for good reason, was not made available to the panel

The Director of Governance & Assurance and Clerk to Governors, or their designated alternative Senior Manager, will review the appeal to determine if the decision made was reasonable and to ensure that due process has been followed. They will not re-investigate or re-hear your case, and may, as a result:

• overturn the original decision
• refer the application back to the Panel
• defer the decision pending further information
• support the original Panel decision and reject the appeal

All appeal decisions will be advised in writing and will be dispatched within 10 working days of the date your written appeal is received by us.

In the case of applicants for programmes of Initial Teacher Training, the Department for Education (DfE) acts as the final arbitrator and applicants may apply directly to the DfE for a decision without making an appeal to the Director of Governance and Assurance and Clerk to Governors.

In the case of applicants for Health related courses appropriate staff from the local NHS Trusts may also be included in the decision-making process and/or act as a Panel member.

You are required to report this immediately, in confidence, to either the DBS Administrator in Admissions (if this occurs prior to the programme commencing), or to the Academic Registrar (if this occurs after you have started your programme).

If you are employed as a Student Advocate, you are required to inform Human Resources immediately you are charged with an offence.

Edge Hill are required to ensure that applicants are (under the Childcare Disqualification Regulations 2009) not disqualified from working in a childcare setting.

A person may be disqualified through:
1. Having certain orders or other restrictions placed upon them
2. Having committed certain offences.

A disqualified person is not permitted to continue to work in a school setting. Unless they apply for and are granted a waiver from OfSTED.

You will be asked to declare that you are not disqualified from working with children when you enrol.

Edge Hill are required to check that all applicants due to commence a programme of Initial Teacher Training are not subject to a prohibition to teach order issued by the Secretary of State.

You do not need to complete anything for this check to be carried out. Your details will be checked by Admissions staff prior to enrolment to ensure you are not subject to a prohibition order. We will only contact you if we are unable to confirm that you are not subject to such an order.

First of all, you need to inform us that you have lived in a country other than the UK for a period of three months or more. You can do this by completing the below online declaration; Overseas Residence Declaration.

Not all countries have a centralised police record and are not able to produce a statement of your conduct. In these circumstances, we will work with you to help you obtain as much supporting evidence as possible.