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For people with criminal records
For people with criminal records

Tag: Covid-19

Applied to the NHS volunteer responder scheme and used your DBS check as identity?

So far approximately 750,000 people have volunteered for the NHS volunteer responder scheme which was set up to help provide support to vulnerable adults who are self-isolating.

The voluntary roles available include:

  • Community Response
  • Patient Transport
  • Check in and Chat

The scheme is being coordinated by the Royal Voluntary Service (RVS).

Guidance from RVS states that patient transport roles are the only ones which require an enhanced DBS check. Applicants could however provide any level of DBS certificate as identification for any role (including non-patient transport ones). Where applicants did this, it was assumed that the certificate would only be used for ID purposes and any other information on the certificate would be disregarded.

We were made aware that this was not always the case and that applications for non-patient transport roles were being refused verification due to criminal record information on the DBS certificate. We contacted RVS to raise our concerns.

RVS responded very quickly stating that they had carried out a review of why certain applications had been refused. As a result of this, it had come to light that:

In some cases, a risk assessment based on criminal record data included on a DBS check and, provided for ID purposes, may have been undertaken in relation to non-patient transport roles”.

RVS have confirmed to us that:

  • DBS certificates will no longer be used as valid forms of ID for application purposes; and
  • All DBS checks previously provided for the purposes of ID, which contain certain criminal conviction data, but which do not relate to an exempt role will be deleted, and where necessary, alternative forms of ID will be requested.

As a result of the high numbers of application, recruitment has been temporarily paused but RVS have encouraged anybody whose previous application could not be verified, to re-apply once the registration page re-opens using an alternative form of identification.

A comment from Unlock

If you have applied for a non-patient transport role and provided a DBS certificate as proof of ID, it would have been a reasonable expectation that your criminal record would not be used against you, and it’s disappointing to find that this has not always been the case.

However, it was encouraging to see RVS respond so quickly to the issues raised and to then implement new practices.

If you have previously failed the verification process, we would encourage you to re-apply once recruitment re-opens.

Covid-19 (coronavirus) – Key information for people with criminal records

Covid-19 and the social distancing measures introduced to help control it are creating challenges for all of us. For people with criminal records, these challenges can be particularly difficult to overcome.

Since the UK went into lock-down, we’ve been contacted by many people with criminal records – those with criminal records in the community, people in prison and people who are subject to licence or community orders – concerned about what Covid-19 means in terms of their criminal record. 

We’ve produced some new information for people with a criminal record which tries to answer some of the common questions we’re coming across. We may not have all the answers – this situation is new to us too – but we will be regularly updating it to ensure it has the latest information and advice on Covid-19 and how it impacts on those with a criminal record.

We have also started to bring together the emerging issues faced by people with criminal records. These include employment, housing and education, as well as DBS checks and supervision arrangements. We are looking carefully at the policy implications of Covid-19 and the social distancing rules, and at how these might affect people with criminal records in the future. You can read more here. We will keep this page under review and update this as things change.

We want our information and policy work to accurately reflect the challenges you’re facing and we need your help to do that by completing a short survey. With this evidence, we can raise the issues and call for solutions.

Complete the survey here. 

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