Disclosure & Barring Service Disclosures

Who needs to hold a disclosure?

For their own protection all those who are in leadership within the church should hold a disclosure as this will allow them to attend all church activities, even if only on an irregular visit basis. All those who are given responsibility for the care of children and young people in any way should hold a disclosure including crèche staff, children's and teen's workers. If you hold groups for vulnerable adults these helpers should also be DBS checked. Administration and caretaking staff that could be on the premises when other groups are meeting should hold disclosures.

SoapBox Training Trust is registered with the Disclosure and Barring Service as an Umbrella Body which allows the trust to process disclosures for other organisations as well as its own staff and volunteers. The Directors of SoapBox are willing to offer this service to churches, schools and other organisations at a minimal cost of £4 per disclosure for volunteer workers and £45 for paid employees. These prices cover the cost of postage and administration.

How does this work?

There will need to be one person appointed by the church/organisation to issue the application forms to the relevant people, this person must hold an enhanced disclosure. The application forms and additional instructions for completion will be provided by SoapBox. The appointed person is then responsible for checking that the identity documents that are presented actually belong to that person, signing a declaration form provided by SoapBox, before sending copies of the documents and application form to the SoapBox registered office in Herne Bay for them to be processed and the disclosure application forms sent to DBS. When the disclosure has been processed the copies of the documents will be shredded.

When the disclosure check has been completed a copy is sent by DBS to the applicant. SoapBox will send a message to the church/organisation appointed person stating that the disclosure has been issued. The church/organisation officers need to ask the person to show them their disclosure. The appointed person should hold a record of the disclosure numbers but disclosures must not be copied in anyway.

How long does it take?

Disclosures take up to 3/4 weeks to be processed by DBS. These dates for processing will be extended if the applicant has lived or worked in the EU.

What is the life of a disclosure?

Although after 6 months a person can be asked to have repeat clearance most organisations use the disclosure for 3 years provided they are in fairly constant contact with the person. Applicants can also apply for the DBS Update Service when they make their application.