National Safeguarding Adults Week at DBS
The DBS Partnership and Engagement team have delivered over 20 safeguarding sessions as part of National Safeguarding Adults Week.
This week, as part of National Safeguarding Adults Week, the Disclosure and Barring Service’s (DBS) Partnership and Engagement team have delivered a number of workshops and sessions to organisations across the UK.
National Safeguarding Adults Week (NSAW) is hosted annually by the Ann Craft Trust, a leading UK authority that supports organisations to safeguard adults and young people at risk. This year’s theme centred around creating safer cultures.
DBS’ Engagement and Outreach Advisers
Last year, as part of NSAW, our Engagement and Outreach Advisers, who sit as part of our Partnership and Engagement team, met with a single local authority.
This year, having grown as a team and built relationships across the UK, they have delivered over 20 sessions to organisations within England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, including the Premier League, various city and county councils, NAVCA, the Small Charities Coalition, a number of safeguarding boards, and Rise.
These sessions and workshops have covered a variety of topics:
- An overview of the work we do in DBS
- DBS checks and eligibility
- Barring referrals and the legal duty to refer
Regional Outreach Adviser for the North East, Susan Davison, said:
The Ann Craft Trust states that the purpose of National Safeguarding Adults Week is to highlight safeguarding issues, facilitate conversations, and raise awareness of safeguarding best practices, so we can all be better together.
As a Regional Outreach Adviser, my role is to promote DBS and the role way play as an effective safeguarding organisation, to make recruitment safer. I will use the events I’m delivering during NSAW to raise awareness of DBS to numerous organisations within my region, focusing on how we can all keep vulnerable groups safe by working together.
The Partnership and Engagement team
The Partnership and Engagement team within DBS work regularly with other organisations, looking at how we can collaborate and share key messages among the safeguarding community.
Their work involves:
- planning and delivering the annual DBS conference
- sessions with various organisations to support their safeguarding practices
- workshops to maximise awareness of DBS checks and eligibility
- delivering barring-focused events to discuss barring referrals and highlight the legal duty to refer
Helen Chandler, Head of Partnerships, said:
I feel extremely privileged to be able to lead the fantastic Partnerships team, knowing that we play a key role in raising the profile of DBS. There is nothing better than experiencing that lightbulb moment when someone in the room realises that they have learned something, and knowing that they will take that back to their organisation and make changes to make recruitment and employment practices safer.
The Partnership and Engagement team, and the Outreach and Engagement Advisers play a key role in supporting DBS’ vision, to make recruitment safer.
How the team can support you
DBS Outreach Advisers are available within the following regions:
| Region | Outreach Officer | Contact |
| North West | Jordan Hayden | Jordan.Hayden@dbs.gov.uk |
| North East | Susan Davison | Susan.Davison@dbs.gov.uk |
| Wales | Carol Ann Eland | CarolAnn.Eland@dbs.gov.uk |
| East Midlands | Elizabeth Whittington | Elizabeth.Whittington@dbs.gov.uk |
| Greater London | Kiranpreet Rehal | Kiranpreet.rehal@dbs.gov.uk |
| Northern Ireland | Allister Woods | Allister.Woods1@dbs.gov.uk |
Support includes:
- answering DBS-related queries and providing advice via phone/email
- attending meetings, training and conferences, or visiting your organisation to have a face-to-face discussion (in line with pandemic restrictions)
- developing and delivering presentations, workshops, webinars or discussions to provide an overview of DBS
- collating feedback, suggestions or comments and feeding this back into DBS
- helping organisations/networks to understand what level of DBS check can be applied for, and what information these checks will provide
- informing organisations and employers of their duty or power to refer
The team can also support organisations at a national level. For more information about the team, and how they may be able to support, please email DBSRegionaloutreach@dbs.gov.uk.