The truth about Mansfield District Council’s DBS Policy

There has been a lot of unnecessary upset and stress caused by totally unprofessional behaviour from people who should know how to behave better.

In 2019 Mansfield District Council, one of the first in the county, introduced a policy that all councillors obtain a Basic DBS check, and this was effective from 26 July 2019. This policy should be reviewed every 2 years, but has not been reviewed since 2019 and so this is part of the forward plan to be reviewed this year by our Governance and Standards committee, but the current policy remains in force and being applied.

The policy clearly states in section 5.

In light of the fact that the Council has a duty to protect the most vulnerable in society this protocol requires all Councillors to undergo basic level DBS checks. Checking the criminal background of Elected Members will enhance the assurance that the Council is taking appropriate steps to safeguard the public

Our constitution which all councillors have training on when they join, clearly sets out the requirement that:

The Mayor, Councillors and any Independent Members or Persons or co-opted Members discharging Council functions:• May be the subject of police checks with the Disclosure and Barring Service.” Our policy has to comply with the Disclosure and Baring Service Code of Practice and the operational limitations laid down via Government and the DBS protocols. The DBS criteria laid down by Government and the DBS, do not identify councillors as requiring an Enhanced check and so there is no provision for the Council to obtain this and the DBS will not allow that level of check to be undertaken.

There are 3 levels of checks and when applying an eligibility criteria is set against each level of check, if the eligibility criteria is not met then the check cannot be undertaken. The eligibility check is set by Government and DBS.

The motion raised at Council was to agree that all councillors should have an “Enhanced DBS check”, but due to the criteria and eligibility laid down by Government and DBS, this is not possible, (it’s not that the council doesn’t want to do an enhanced check, it’s that legally we are not able to do an enhanced check). The only check that we can apply for is a “Basic Check” which is what the current policy sets out and is the same level that any District Council can apply for.