Managing DBS checks (UK only)

Introduction

Churches and charitable organisations in England and Wales will likely need to carry out Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks on those working with children, young people and vulnerable adults at risk. Beyond England and Wales, other organisations may have similar safeguarding checks they are required to carry out. Although this article focuses on the process as it relates to an organisation in England or Wales, the principles involved can be easily adapted.

The process of carrying out DBS checks can be managed successfully using a Flow, enabling you to keep ministry overseers informed at each stage of the process by, for example, sending timely notifications when tasks become due or overdue. Flows enable you to delegate tasks effectively - perhaps having the ID checking stage allocated to the appropriate designated person on your team.

Initial set up: preset emails

Before you begin using the example flows to process your DBS checks, you will need to set up some preset emails in advance. You can read more about preset emails in the related article (found at the bottom of the page) Using preset emails.

Head to the Presets section and click Add email.

Add the following emails, worded as appropriate for your organisation, to meet the described function of each:

• Email 1 is a DBS request email that will be sent to the person advising them that a DBS check is now required. The email will likely include an overview of the renewal process and how to log in to the Thirtyone:eight online disclosures system to complete their online application.
• Email 2 is a reminder email explaining that the online application has not yet been completed and asking the person to complete this as a matter of urgency or to contact the office if there is a problem. This would again contain the details of how to log in to the Thirtyone:eight online disclosures system to complete their online application.
• Email 3 confirms the successful completion of the online application and reminds the applicant that they need to present their valid forms of ID for verification to a designated person.
• Email 4 confirms the ID has been successfully verified and submitted and details what happens next: that their DBS check is in progress and that, once completed, their disclosure certificate will be issued to them. The email reminds the person that they must provide you with the certificate so that it can be reviewed and noted in the church's safeguarding records. The disclosure will then be returned to the person for their records.
• Email 5 thanks the serving team member that their DBS check has now been fully completed and will be renewable again in 3 years (or the time period set within your organisation). You may even wish to direct any volunteers to sign up to the DBS update service.

Initial set up: Installing the example flows

Next add two flows - DBS in Progress and DBS Awaiting Renewal. To do this, head to the Flows section and select the flow DBS in Progress from the set of examples.

Click Install.

The flow is opened to view on the In Progress tab.

Click on the Settings tab to view the stages and actions installed as part of the flow - you'll need to add a few more actions which we talk through later in this article.

Next, add relevant Managers to the flow. Managers receive notifications when people become due in the flow and you can have multiple managers for a flow - click the + in the Managers section to add them.

Next, Edit the flow to customise its name (if required) and select when reminders will be sent:

If appropriate, set the flow Visible to a specific user group - perhaps a DBS user group, so only those required to see the DBS process can access the flow.

Finally in this step, note that you can Edit a Stage to assign the particular stage to a specific user. For example, you might assign the ID checking stage to a team member trained for this task. They would then receive an email reminder notification on the selected days of the Due and Overdue people in their assigned flow stage, continuing to receive them until either the actions are processed (task completed), the due people are delegated to another user or the task is postponed to a later due date.

Now repeat this process to add the second example flow, DBS Awaiting Renewal.

Initial set up: Adding additional actions to the flows

You will now need to add some additional actions to each flow, to enable the sending of your prepared preset emails and to move people between the two flows.

DBS in Progress flow

Begin with the DBS in Progress flow.

Working in the Settings tab, for each of the following stages, add a Send Email action.

• Stage: Send Email - Add the Send Email flow action and select Email 1. Set the Default state for the action as Selected/Automated.
• Stage: Online form Complete - Add the Send Email flow action and select Email 2. Set the Default state for the action as Unselected.
• Stage: Online form Complete - Add the Send Email flow action and select Email 3. Set the Default state for the action as Selected/Automated.
• Stage: Check ID - Add the Send Email flow action and select Email 4. Set the Default state for the action as Selected/Automated.
• Stage: Check Certificate - Add the Send Email flow action and select Email 5. Set the Default state for the action as Selected/Automated.

Note the Default state for each Action - some actions should have a ticked default state and others are unticked to give the User a choice when they are processing people through the flow.

Try to keep the actions in a logical order - drag and drop to reorder the actions so the Send email actions are above the Move to stage actions.

Finally for this flow, in the Check Certificate stage, add an additional action to Add to flow, selecting the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow with the default state as Selected/Automated. Drag and drop to move this action to above the Move to stage: Completed action.

DBS Awaiting Renewal flow

Next, navigate to the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow. In the Awaiting Renewal stage, add an additional action to Add to flow, selecting the DBS in Progress flow and setting the Default state for the action as Selected/Automated. Drag and drop to move this action to above the Move to stage: Completed action.

The above step is very important - as this stage is automated, when a person becomes due, they will automatically be added to the DBS in Progress flow and will be Completed in the DBS Awaiting renewal flow. In this way, a person will be moved from one flow to another when they're processed, so you can easily see who already has a DBS and who is in the process of obtaining one.

Once you've added the required actions, you can Edit each stage to remove the "Note for users" text from the Instructions.

Establishing who needs a DBS check and adding them to the flows

Your organisation's safeguarding and other internal policies will determine who requires a DBS check and how often those checks are carried out. Since a DBS check is technically only valid on the day it is produced, organisations will periodically re-check people, perhaps every 2-3 years - or sooner, if there is a cause for concern. As a general rule, a DBS check should be carried out before someone begins working with children or vulnerable adults at risk. However, some policies may allow for certain "known" people to work in a supervised role while their DBS check is being completed.

Typically, DBS checks are required for people working in regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults at risk, either in paid or voluntary capacities. Do be aware that the DBS is very strict on which roles are covered by a DBS and it is unlawful to request a DBS for someone not in an eligible role.

You may already have people who work with children or vulnerable adults at risk tagged in your Address Book or Children module; you may have ministry teams set up in your Rota module for those in those roles; you may have a related role allocated to appropriate people in your Small Groups module. To pull all those various groupings together into a single list, in order to get your DBS process off the ground, you will need to create a Smart tag. The advantage of using a Smart Tag is that once it's created, it will remain up to date as your data changes. So, as you add/remove small group leaders or add to your volunteer teams, that Smart Tag will always reflect the latest list of people needing a DBS check - although you should periodically review your Smart Tag to make sure the list of groupings included is up to date.

Here's an example of the Smart Tag conditions you might have, that matches all people who are in eligible roles requiring a DBS. Where a person matches on multiple criteria, they will surface once in the smart tag:

In your initial results, you may have people who already have a current DBS. In the section below, we'll talk through adding those who currently have a DBS check to the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow and assigning the due date for their next renewal. That flow will essentially serve as a "holding area" until their DBS renewal becomes due.

DBS Awaiting Renewal

Now, as a one-time task, and working from your existing DBS check records, for each person for whom you hold an existing DBS disclosure, add that contact into your "DBS Awaiting Renewal" flow. You can do this using the + button in the flows section on the contact's Engagement tab.

Notice the Search option on the Add to flow pop-up. You can search and select multiple people to add to the "DBS Awaiting Renewal" flow without needing to go to each person's profile individually and this will save you some time. You can even search for a tag and add those in the tag to the flow.

Having assigned all your existing DBS checked people to the "DBS Awaiting Renewal" flow, you now need to update the "due date" for each person so that they are processed on the correct renewal due date - remember, by default, they'll have been assigned a due date of 35 months from the date you added them to the flow. Working in the People tab of the flow, locate the person whose Due date you want to change and click on the due date, bringing up the Edit due/assigned pop up.

Use the date picker to set the Due date to match the appropriate future date when their DBS check is due for renewal (1 month before expiry) and click Save.

Repeat this step of picking the appropriate due date for each person awaiting renewal. This is an unavoidably manual task when you set up your DBS flows, as each person's future renewal date will likely be different.

Update your Smart Tag

Before moving to the next step, let's return to the Smart Tag we created earlier. Navigate to the Conditions tab of the tag, click Edit conditions and add in a new batch condition (click the Add condition batch button) to exclude all the contacts in our "DBS Awaiting Renewal" flow, as follows.

Be sure to select the red cross, rather than the green tick, so that we get a "Not in flow" result. Remember to Save the changes. The list of contacts now matched by your Smart Tag should be much shorter - now excluding people who currently have a valid DBS who are in the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow.

DBS in Progress

Following the same process as before, from each person's profile page, add each existing "in progress" person to the DBS in Progress flow. On the Add to flow pop-up, you can also select the correct Stage to add them to. If you need to, move people around to the next or previous stages but be careful not to Process any of the other actions prematurely for that Stage!

As with the previous step, if necessary, work within the People tab of the flow, locate the person and update their Due date accordingly to reflect when they should become due in the stage of the flow you've added them to.

As with the previous step, the setup for this flow may take a little time to complete to get existing people in the right places in the flow. Once both flows are set up, managing them in the future will be considerably easier and the beauty of flows is that they'll help you stay organised and in the loop of where people are at with the DBS checks and renewals.

Update your Smart Tag - again!

Having now added all your existing "in progress" people to your "DBS In Progress" flow, let's return again to the tag we created earlier to update the Smart Tag one last time. Navigate to the Conditions tab, click Edit conditions and add a new condition to the existing batch to also exclude all the contacts in our "DBS in Progress" flow, as follows.

Now, when you save your Smart Tag, the remaining list of people (if any) will be only those who need a DBS check and who don't currently have one and are not currently in progress. It may be that you now have an empty tag. Great, there is nothing more to do today!

Initial setup: finished

Your DBS flow setup is now complete! You should have two flows: DBS Awaiting Renewal and DBS in Progress.

• Your DBS Awaiting Renewal flow will contain everyone who has a current DBS, with their Due date showing as 1 month prior to the renewal date.
• Your DBS in Progress flow will show contain those whose DBS is due for renewal or who is currently undertaking a new DBS check.

New DBS checks

Having added all your existing DBS people into the correct flow - either awaiting renewal or in progress, you may still have a list of people in your "DBS Needed" tag who require a check. Equally, as new people join ministries, tags, groups or roles that require a DBS check, they'll automatically be tagged by your "DBS Needed" Smart Tag. You'll need to periodically monitor this Tag to identify new people - ideally, it should be empty as people will either be in progress or awaiting renewal.

To add these people to the flow, from the Tag "View", use the Add to flow option in the Bulk Actions menu to add any new people to your "DBS in Progress" flow...

...and add them to the first Stage of the "DBS in Progress" flow. This will in turn untag them from your "DBS Needed" tag.

Alternatively, to add an individual to the flow, navigate to their Address Book profile and use the the + button in the flows section on the contact's Engagement tab.

Workflow for DBS checks

Now that your flows are set up, and you've added people to them, you can process people through the flows as necessary as they complete each stage of the DBS check. Your flows will track who has a DBS check, who is undertaking a check and at what stage they are in the process.

Open the "DBS In Progress" flow. Note the option to filter by Status. For people who are Due (today's date, green) or Overdue (a past date, red), click to process the person. In this example, this person's DBS renewal is ready to be started.

At each Stage in the flow, you have the option to change the Due date, perhaps to postpone processing them to a later date, and the option to change which User is Assigned to action the person in this stage. After updating, close the process page by clicking the "X" in the top right corner if you wish to ensure no further actions are processed.

On the Process pop-up, review the Instructions.

At each Stage, there is an Add note option on the Details tab of the pop-up and you can read previously-added notes left by yourself or other users - helpful to keep track of phone call conversations, tasks completed or responses the person may make.

Back on the Actions tab, you may wish to personalise the preset email before you click Process - click the Personalise button and make any changes to the email as necessary.

Click Process and all ticked actions will be processed. By default (unless you untick some of the actions) this will mean a Tag is assigned, the preset email is sent and the person will be moved to the next stage with a new processing due date set.

The flow manager will receive an email notification when the next stage is due for processing. As they receive flow reminder notifications for each stage, continue to follow the flow stage Instructions, add optional Notes and Process the appropriate Actions to move them to the next Stage.

When a person becomes due in the final Stage, follow the suggested instructions for this stage and process the person out of the flow by clicking Process. The person will be automatically added to your "DBS Awaiting Renewal" flow and a 35-month renewal due date will be set.

In the above screenshot, notice that a Key Date of "DBS approved" has been added and that the Key Date Description field has been used to record a note of the actual Certificate number as a means of evidencing sight of the disclosure. You can now Process for the last time to process them out of the DBS in Progress flow and into the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow.

Here's a brief rundown of what would happen at each flow stage:

Flow	Stage	Description
DBS in Progress	Send Email	This is the first stage of the flow and should be processed immediately. A reminder notification will be sent to the flow manager on the due date or the next selected day. They will process the person, sending Email 1, adding the DBS in progress tag and moving them to the next stage.
DBS in Progress	Online Form Complete	On the Due date, a reminder notification is sent to the flow manager that a task is due. They will then check their Online Disclosures portal (or similar) to see if the contact has completed the online application. If they have, then they can be processed to the next stage and sent "Email 3", which reminds them to provide their ID. If they have not completed their application, "Email 2" is sent, with perhaps a Note added against the person to record what has been done. Note the move action to move to the current stage - processing the person to the current stage resets the due date without moving the person forward in the process. The person will remain in this stage until the online/paper application is completed.
DBS in Progress	Check ID	On the Due date, a reminder is sent to the flow manager and any assigned user. If the ID has been verified, the individual will be processed to the next stage and a relevant key date added. If not, then the user will need to follow up, perhaps adding a note of actions taken. As with the previous stage, the person will remain at this stage until their ID is verified. As before, processing them to the same stage will reset the due date. "Email 4" is sent, reminding the person show their DBS disclosure to the relevant team member once it is received. Note that the assigned user or flow manager will need to update their Online Disclosures portal (or similar) as appropriate.
DBS in Progress	Check Certificate	On the Due date, the flow manager and any assigned user will receive a reminder notification. At this point, they may check the Online Disclosures portal (or similar) to see if the Disclosure & Barring Service have issued the disclosure. Typically, this can take from 10 to 60 days, depending on the amount of checking that they have to do, so the due date may need adjusting until the DBS disclosure is issued. They'll remain at this stage until the disclosure is issued to them. "Email 5" is sent once the disclosure has been issued and the certificate seen. Processing through this stage, as well as sending the email, you will add a "DBS approved"key date, inserting the certificate number into the description, remove the "DBS in progress" tag, add the person to the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow and mark them as complete in the DBS in Progress flow. As with the other stages, a Note can be added against their profile to record what has been done if neccesary.
DBS Awaiting Renewal	Awaiting Renewal	On the Due date, the automation will automatically process the person into the DBS in Progress flow and mark them as complete in the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow.

Note that Flows status is shown on the contact's profile page within the Engagement tab...

...and the DBS approved Key Date shows on the Key Dates tab.

Current DBS Smart Tag

Now that your flows are set up, you could create an additional smart tag to easily see who has a DBS and is in the DBS Awaiting Renewal flow. This is particularly helpful if your DBS flows are restricted to a user group but other users need to see who has a DBS. You may even wish to pin the tag, so contacts in the tag show with an icon.

Use the following Smart Tag conditions to see those who are both in the DBS - Awaiting Renewal flow and those who have a DBS approved key date in the past 3 years...

Meanwhile, an "in progress" person's renewal will have a different flow status...

... and a Tag showing on their profile page.