The Truth Behind the Criminal Records Bureau and Charities

The Criminal Records Bureau is an executive agency of the Home Office that searches various databases to find out if any of your volunteers and employees, over the age of 18, have any criminal convictions or court orders, etc on their record.

This allows the employer/charity to see if any applicants have been up front and truthful about their background and allows employers/charities to see if there are any causes for concern in letting the applicant have contact with children or vulnerable adults (ie previous convictions for assault against a minor).

If your charity works with either children or vulnerable adults then all those staff or volunteers who have direct contact with them need to have had a CRB check. You cannot apply for a CRB check if you are self employed.

CRB checks do not need to be completed for every organization a volunteer works for. The Enhanced Disclosure from the CRB shows a snap shot in time of a persons criminal background, and subsequent convictions will not be automatically notified to the employer.

The CRB disclosure forms are not officially ‘portable’ and employers who accept disclosure forms from other organizations do so at their own risk. The employer or charity needs to satisfy its legal obligations in ensuring that the check is carried out and an appropriate decision is made as to whether to allow the applicant access to children or vulnerable adults.

If an employee or volunteer has a criminal record on their disclosure form it does not necessarily bar them from the job/position they have applied for, it is for the employer to decide whether somebody is suitable to work in that position. If the conviction includes addition to any of the barring lists (PoCA, PoVA or List 99) or a court imposed ban on working in certain professions, then it may be a criminal act to make an application for employment in those areas.

It is also important to note that it is not always necessary to have received a disclosure form prior to working with children or vulnerable adults, some organization allow new employees and volunteers to work whilst supervised once the CRB check has been applied for. Likewise, it can take some time for CRB disclosures to come back to organizations so it is imperative that at least some of the adult staff have them when it starts operating.

A CRB check is valid indefinitely; there is no legal requirement to renew it annually. However most organizations do ask their employees or volunteers to reapply every 1-3 years. For volunteers the check is free of charge, for employees a fee needs to be paid.

When your charity starts looking around for charity insurance quotes there is every chance your charity insurance broker will ask whether CRB checks have been carried out so having an understanding of what happens and why will be invaluable. CRB are designed to keep organizations and people safe so whilst big brother maybe watching, they are doing so for all the right reasons.