University of Brighton ITE Partnerships
Safeguarding: DBS and other vetting checks for Trainee Teachers: 2015-16
The University of Brighton operates robust suitability and vetting procedures on entrants to all ITT programmes in order to safeguard our partnership schools and protect the interests of all pupils with whom our trainees work. Our partnership’s policies and procedures are reviewed regularly to ensure that they remain rigorous and fully compliant with the most recent statutory regulations and guidance.
As the accredited ITT provider, we have a strict duty to comply with the Initial Teacher Training Criteria and supporting advice, June 2015, published by the National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL), a department of the DfE.
Ofsted scrutinise compliance with these criteria during their ITE inspections: this includes checking that our procedures are fully in line with the most recent DfE, NCTL and DBS legislation and guidance.
‘Keeping children safe in education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges’ (DfE, July 2015) requires the university, as the accredited ITT provider, to ensure that entrants on all ITT routes, including salaried schemes, have been subject to all relevant vetting checks. All entrants must be subject to a satisfactory Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) criminal records check (including a check of the children’s barred list) and a check that they are not subject to a prohibition order issued by the Secretary of State. In addition, for trainees on primary or early years routes, checks must be made in accordance with the Childcare (Disqualification) Regulations 2009. The university is responsible for keeping records to show that all of these checks have been completed and cleared.
Candidates’ references are checked at the application stage. At interview, all candidates are subject to photographic ID checks and checks of original certificates of prior qualifications. Prior to being offered a firm offer of a place on an ITT programme, all applicants are required to complete a self-declaration form: this protects the partnership from offering places to those whose background is known to deem them unsuited to training to teach. All firm offers are then subject to successful completion of an occupational health check, to ensure that they are ‘fit to teach’, and to an Enhanced DBS check (including a check of the children’s barred list). Additional checks are made on applicants who have spent time living overseas, in strict accordance with DfE and DBS guidance. Prior to entry, checks are made against the list of prohibited teachers. Additional checks are made on entrants to primary and early years programmes in accordance with the Childcare (Disqualification) Regulations.
Fee-paying Trainee Teachers (i.e. all those on all non-salaried programmes)
It is the responsibility of the university, rather than individual partnership schools, to ensure that all vetting and suitability checks are carried out on entrants to our non-salaried/fee-funded training routes. The university would never accept a trainee with a criminal record that would present a safeguarding risk to partnership schools or a record that would deem the trainee to be unemployable as a teacher. Any candidate or trainee with a criminal record is subject to the university’s ‘Suitability to Practise’ procedures. If there is any doubt about their suitability, the case is heard by a panel that includes a senior member of staff from a partnership school or local authority with safeguarding expertise.
As the Registered Body, the university is legally bound to ensure that partnership schools do not have access to copies of DBS checks or to any information contained in a non-salaried trainee’s disclosure.
When placing a non-salaried trainee in a partnership school/setting, the university confirms to the school/setting that all relevant vetting checks have been completed and that the trainee has been judged to suitable to work with children. This is shown on the list of trainees sent to the named contact at the school prior to the commencement of the placement. Trainees are advised to take photographic ID into school on the first visit so that the school can check their identity. Schools are advised to keep a copy of the university’s DBS and other vetting check confirmation together with evidence that the trainee’s ID has been checked with their own Single Central Record (SCR). However, as non-salaried trainees are neither employees nor volunteers at the school, Ofsted and the DfE have confirmed that
“There is no requirement for the school to record details of fee-funded trainees on their single central record”[1].
If schools wish to include fee-paying trainee teachers on their SCR, they are advised to note why their DBS disclosure numbers and dates are not included and that they have received confirmation from the University of Brighton that these checks have been completed and cleared.
In the event of a delay in receiving the DBS certificate, the university completes a separate check of the DBS children’s barred list prior to the commencement of any school-based training. In such cases, the university will advise the school that the trainee’s DBS is ‘pending’ and will keep the school fully informed of the progress of the DBS application. As all trainees are very closely supervised in the early stages of their training, this is not considered to present a safeguarding risk but schools may wish to put additional safeguards in place when a trainee’s DBS check is pending.
Trainee Teachers on employment-based programmes (e.g. School Direct Salaried, Troops to Teachers, Early Years Initial Teacher Training)
As these trainees are employed by the school or setting, it is the responsibility of the employer, rather than the university, to undertake all relevant vetting and suitability checks in accordance with the Initial Teacher Training Criteria and supporting advice, (DfE June 2015) and ‘Keeping children safe in education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges’ (DfE, July 2015)
Where the allocated place belongs to a school/setting, the university assists in this process during the application/recruitment stage in the following ways:
· UCAS applications, including references, are scrutinised by both the university and by the employing school/setting;
· The university is involved in interviewing candidates either separately or jointly with the school/setting and ensures that photographic ID checks are made;
· The university takes responsibility for verifying that a candidate’s academic qualifications meet the minimum requirements for the programme. This includes checking the ‘equivalence’ of international or unusual qualification and the validity of certificates that are presented at interview. (Copies of original certificates should be signed by the interviewer as ‘original seen’ and passed back to the university for checking before an offer is made);
· The university requires applicants to employment-based, as well as fee-paying, programmes to complete the ‘self-declaration’ form prior to entry. Although the information provided on this form is confidential, applicants to employment-based programmes sign to accept that this can be shared with the employing school/setting.
The employing school/setting is responsible for carrying out all other vetting checks on trainee-teachers on all employment-based/salaried programmes, including
· verifying the trainee’s mental and physical fitness to teach;
· obtaining an Enhanced DBS check, including a barred list check;
· a check that the trainee is not subject to a prohibition order issued by the Secretary of State;
· for primary and Early Years trainees, checks should also be made in accordance with the Childcare (Disqualification) Regulations 2009.
For salaried trainees, the employer is responsible for recording details of all vetting checks on their single central record in the same way as for any other employee. (See Keeping children safe in education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges’ (DfE, July 2015) page 31, parag 73.)
As the ITT provider, the university is responsible for ensuring that these checks have been completed. Hence, for trainees on employment-based programmes, the university requires schools/settings to confirm to that all relevant vetting checks, including DBS checks, have been completed. However, the university does not ask the school/setting, as the Registered Body, to share any disclosure information as this would be in breach of the DBS Code of Practice.
References
DfE (July 2015) Keeping children safe in education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education
NCTL (June 2015) Initial teacher training criteria supporting advice https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/initial-teacher-training-criteria-supporting-advice
September 2015
[1]Keeping children safe in education: statutory guidance for schools and colleges’ (DfE, July 2015) page 33, parag 79