Parish Responsibilities
The PCC must ensure that there is always a Parish Safeguarding Officer (PSO) and a Disclosure Officer (DO); both roles are appointed by the PCC. The PSO is the key link between the diocese and a parish – view the PSO role description. The DO only holds responsibility for processing, obtaining and storing DBS checks for their parish.
All parishes must ensure they are aligned with the Safer Recruitment Policy. Duties of this include, but are not limited to:
Safer Recruitment Policy
All parishes should be aligned with the Safer Recruitment Policy that was implemented in 2022. Significant changes this policy brought about can be found below:
- DBS checks to be undertaken every three years. This is a change from the previous renewal timeframe of five years. DBS checks undertaken from 2019 onwards should have the new timescales applied to them and you will need to review your records at parish level to ensure that you are fully compliant with the three-yearly renewals by the end of 2023. Please see Section 9 of the Church of England guidance for further information.
- A Confidential Declaration must be completed for any roles that have contact with children and vulnerable adults, and are subject to an Enhanced DBS check. Please see Section 5 of the Church of England guidance for more information.
- Whilst having hard copies can be easier to use, please note that hard copies will not be issued. Any updates will come out on the Church of England Safeguarding E-Manual.
Safer Recruitment and People Management FAQs can be found on the Church of England website.
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
The PCC and incumbent are responsible for ensuring that all paid or volunteer workers with children, young people, and vulnerable adults at risk are safely recruited, trained, supported, and supervised. DBS checks, where a role is eligible, form one part of this safer recruitment process.
Failure to follow safer recruitment procedures may place children, young people, or vulnerable adults (as defined by the Care Act 2014) at risk. It may compromise parish insurance, harm the reputation of the wider Church, and constitute a breach of the Safeguarding (Code of Practice) Measure 2021.
DBS checks are not a legal requirement in themselves; they are a safeguarding tool that may be used only when a role is eligible. Organisations have no automatic right to request any level of check. There are legal restrictions to protect individuals. Requesting a DBS check for a non-eligible role is an offence under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, which could expose the organisation to criminal prosecution and fines.
More information
Due Diligence Checking (DDC)
We have very recently moved over to a new DBS provider, Due Diligence Checking (DDC), on a temporary contract, to be reviewed in the new year. If you, as a Disclosure Officer, have not yet signed up to use DDC as your DBS provider please contact Jas, the Safeguarding Administrator on safeguarding@diocant.org so she can get you an account.
Please note: Should your parish wish to raise a DBS request through our previous provider, APCS, you will be entering into a separate contract with them and the PCC will be fully liable to pay APCS directly for any of their charges incurred.
Below are some links to an FAQ sheet, the DDC ‘Quick Start Guide’ and their Job Role Breakdown:
DBS Fees
These prices have recently been updated since our changeover of DBS provider. If you have not yet registered to create an account with DDC, please email safeguarding@diocant.org for further instructions and support.
Identity Documents and Retaining Information
From April 2025, DBS guidance requires organisations to retain records of identity verification documents for at least 2 years. For more information on what is required please see here - ID checking guidelines for Standard/Enhanced DBS check applications from 22 April 2025 - GOV.UK.
Tools are available to help you record this information (or you may use your own system):
The previous guidance is to be followed if you are using any other provider other than DDC for your parish DBS checks. If you are now using DDC please read the below.
DDC, as the Umbrella Body, for the employer, will retain this information. They collect all the required data fields from the applicant, which are cross-checked and confirmed by the document checker where applicable. After 2 years, DDC’s compliance team remove the information form their systems. This process has been confirmed as compliant by the DBS.
Renewals and Update Service
All DBS checks must be renewed every 3 years as outlined in the Safer Recruitment Policy that was issued in January 2022.
We understand that requesting and applying for a new DBS check every three years can be a tedious and time-consuming task so we do accept the use of the DBS Update Service. The update service is free to register with for any voluntary role. Please refer to the following list if you do decide to use the Update Service:
- It is down to the employee/volunteer to sign themselves up to the update service.
- You must make sure you see the original, hard copy version of the certificate so you know the results are clear; the update service only tells you if there have been changes to their certificate, not if it is blemished or not.
- Ensure the level of check on the certificate, exactly matches the level of check required for the role.
Eligibility Requirements
Levels of checks
There are six levels of checks and each level of check requests a different level of private information on an individual. Enhanced level checks can be for either or both Child and Adult workforces – this creates a further two levels of checks.
Eligibility
Below are some descriptions and examples to assist in determining if a role is eligible for any particular level of check, but this is not exhaustive and meant to be use as a crude guide – for full details please refer to the DBS guidance.
APCS Data Breach
A data breach that has occurred involving data processed by Access Personal Checking Services (APCS) Ltd – the provider the Diocese and most parishes currently use to process Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for parish officers.
Following the APCS data breach, we will be temporarily transitioning to Due Diligence Checking (DDC) to handle our DBS checks. DDC and their Datawarehouse are both ISO 27001 certified and adhere to strict cybersecurity protocols.
For more information on the APCS Data Breach, please follow the link here APCS Data Breach - Diocese of Canterbury.
If you have been unable to find the answer to your question or the relevant information, please email Jas, the Safeguarding Administrator, on safeguarding@diocant.org so she can assist you.
If your question is regarding training, please look at the training section of the website and if you still do not have an answer to your question, please also email safeguarding@diocant.org.