You have been referred to the DBS

The DBS is a safeguarding regulator. It has the power to bar a person from working or volunteering with children or vulnerable adults if it believes they present a risk to those groups.

Where a safeguarding incident happens in a role involving children or vulnerable adults, and the organisation believes someone has caused harm, known as relevant conduct, or posed a risk of harm, known as the harm test, that organisation has either a legal duty or a power to refer the matter to the DBS barring department. That department is entirely separate from the part of the DBS that issues certificates.

A DBS referral is a report setting out the details of the safeguarding incident or risk, sent to the DBS so it can decide whether to consider barring you or take no further action.

The initial referral often does not contain everything the DBS wants, and it has a statutory power to request more from the referrer or anyone else. Any person or organisation receiving such a request has a legal duty to respond.

One point is worth understanding clearly. The DBS has no investigatory powers of its own. It cannot interview anyone, attend meetings or site visits, or contact witnesses. It decides on the documents other people send it.

In theory anyone can refer you to the DBS barring team, including a member of the public. In practice almost every referral comes from an organisation with either a legal duty or a legal power to make one. The table below sets out who falls into each group.

Once the referral has been received and processed, the DBS writes to you directly. A caseworker is allocated and sends a letter headed "Important Information", telling you in general terms that a referral has arrived and that it will now consider whether to include you on one or both barred lists. This is known as the information gathering process.

That letter confirms you can continue working with children and vulnerable adults while your case is considered. It gives no timescales and does not invite you to respond at that stage.

The next letter is the one that matters. It will either close the matter with no further action, which is called a No Action letter, or tell you the DBS is Minded to Bar you. Even then you are not barred. That is the point at which you are offered the chance to make written representations.

No. Many organisations have a legal duty or power to refer, and once the referral is received the DBS will begin considering it. You cannot stop the referral process. What you can influence is what happens after that, and how well prepared you are for it.

After the initial acknowledgement, the DBS typically takes several months to complete the information gathering stage and its considerations before writing again, either with a No Action letter or a Minded to Bar letter. If a Minded to Bar letter arrives you will have eight weeks to respond.

Yes. You need to have been removed from the role before a referral can be made, but it makes no difference that you resigned before a safeguarding investigation, or before a dismissal could take place. Removal from the role covers dismissal, redeployment, retirement, redundancy and resignation alike.

The duty to refer to the DBS applies regardless of whether the matter has gone to other agencies. Referrals to a local authority, the LADO, the police or a professional regulator do not replace it.

Yes. The DBS has specific legal powers to share information with other government and regulatory bodies, and it regularly shares details with professional regulators such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council or the General Medical Council. If you are facing both at once, what you say to one can be shared with the other.

No. An enhanced certificate shows only that a person has been barred. If you apply for a new certificate while the DBS is still considering the referral, the referral itself will not appear on it. The DBS will, however, be aware of any enhanced checks you apply for during that period.

No. A referral to the DBS cannot be out of time. Good practice is for organisations to refer as quickly as possible so that any repeat risk of harm is addressed, but referrals about older incidents are perfectly valid.

Speak to me. You can tell me where things stand and I will explain what the DBS is likely to be doing with your case, what is worth gathering now, and how to prepare in case a Minded to Bar letter does arrive. The first conversation costs nothing.