The Disclosure and Barring Service Launch People-Focused Five-Year Strategy
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has launched its new five-year strategy detailing its ambitions for 2025, focusing on the key elements of Profile, People and Quality.
Under the subtitle of ‘making recruitment safer’, the DBS aims to ‘ensure that the organisation continues to thrive, provide services of the highest standards and make a real contribution to the national safeguarding arena.’
The DBS delivers Disclosure and Barring functions on behalf of the government. This includes DBS checks for England, Wales, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man and Barring functions for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The DBS was created in 2012 under the provisions of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 and they are a non-departmental public body (NDPB) accountable to Parliament through the Secretary of State for the Home Office.
A DBS check is a criminal record check that can be requested either by an employer or something that you can request yourself. Roles that involve healthcare or working with children will almost certainly require a DBS check prior to an applicant being accepted into the role.
The first strategic priority is quality, pledging to provide high quality, reliable, consistent and timely services for customers by implementing legislative change, developing their insight and intelligence capability and introducing a new barring portal.
Their ‘Profile’ element seeks to make the DBS become a respected and trusted organisation and to play an influential role in the environment in which they operate.
‘People’ focuses on the workforce at the DBS and how their contributions work towards achieving objectives. Elements of this include implementing a new ‘reward and recognition’ scheme, work to balance the pay policy and develop a new DBS academy which will focus on coordinating all learning and development activity.
Kerry Redmond, Head of Background Screening & Security Vetting at Morson, said
“It’s extremely positive to see forward planning and direction from the DBS in relation to criminal record checking processing and procedures. In line with core values of the Morson Group, I am pleased that the candidate journey and experience are at the forefront of release as they look to innovate and digitalise strategy.”
The delivery of the 2025 strategy will enable the DBS to develop as an organisation, improve the services they provide, and supporting the contribution they make within the safeguarding community.
