Disclosure and Barring Service checks on States employees (FOI)

​Request

A

Can you tell me how many people work in each States department who require a CRB / DBS background check?

B

Of those, broken down by department, can you tell me how many have never had a CRB / DBS check prior to the review currently being undertaken?

C

In relation to the health department can you breakdown answers to the above questions into health staff and social services staff?

D

In relation to education, can you breakdown the information into teaching staff / assistants and others?

Since 2005, by year:

E

Can you tell me how many times since the introduction of DBS / CRB checks (2005, I believe) that a States employee who has not had a background check has gone on to be disciplined, dismissed or prosecuted on safeguarding grounds?

F

Can you tell me how many times since the introduction of DBS / CRB checks (2005, I believe) that a States employee who has not had a background check has gone on to be disciplined, dismissed or prosecuted on safeguarding grounds, and it has later emerged that they have had something on their record which would have been raised by a CRB / DBS check?

G

In general, on an annual basis, how many States employees have been disciplined, dismissed or prosecuted on safeguarding grounds since the introduction of background checks?

Response

A

There are currently 5,400 employees recorded as working in roles that require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. This includes employees engaged on permanent, fixed term and zero hour contracts.

Employees may be eligible for basic, standard and enhanced DBS checks due to requirements of their role.

Further information on eligibility for DBS checks can be found on the UK DBS website at:

DBS checks (previously CRB checks)

Table 1 shows by department, the amount of staff who require a DBS check.

Table 1

B

DBS checks (formerly Criminal Records Bureau checks) were introduced in 2002. Before that time there was no central system for checking and recording police record clearances, therefore a large number of our employees have not been recorded as having a DBS check undertaken.

As part of a process review of the States of Jersey Safe Recruitment Policy prior to the introduction of new safeguarding legislation later this year, the States of Jersey have reviewed the eligibility for DBS checks for a large number of roles. Because of this review, some employees will now be required to undertake a DBS check although their role may not previously have required one.

C

Table 2 shows the breakdown of the Health and Social Services figure from table 1 by Health and Social Services staff.

Table 2

D

Table 3 shows the breakdown of the Education figure from table 1 by teaching staff /  teaching assistants and others.

Table 3

E to G

Information is not available to answer these questions as records are not held in a form which can facilitate a reply.

Under the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011, the scheduled public authorities are not obliged to manipulate or create new data in order to respond to a request.