14. Guidance on the use of Volunteers, Students and Agency Staff

Volunteers and students can make up a large part of your workforce and are seen by children as safe and trustworthy adults. However, assumptions cannot be made as to their suitability to work with children and young people. Organisations should carry out a risk assessment of each volunteer or student working with children. This is good practice and ensures that these adults are not allowed inappropriate access to children.

Volunteers and students

The rules for Disclosure and Barring service (DBS) disclosures that apply to paid staff are the same for volunteers and students.

Organisations must carry out a risk assessment of each volunteer, or student working with children and arrange a robust induction process. It is important that the setting has the same expectations of volunteers around conduct and understanding of the setting's policies as they do of employed staff. This is good practice and ensures that these adults are not allowed unsupervised access to children. DBS checks are for those over 16, if a student is on a school placement they will be too young for a check.

It is considered best practice to apply safeguarding DBS checks to regular visitors that visit frequently rather than occasionally.

• If volunteers fill a very wide variety of roles, the recruitment process needs to be applied with common sense and the process may need to be adapted to cater for particular roles and sensitivities
• It is important to consider the volunteer's motives and attitudes for wishing to do this activity, just as you would a paid member of staff
• The volunteer's roles and responsibilities should be clearly stated

Consider

• Does a parent volunteer who is one of a group helping out on a one-off occasion such as a day trip, a fete, a sports day or a school disco have to go through the same rigorous process as a volunteer who will have an ongoing role that involves regular contact with children?
• If you have applied a more informal process how are you going to ensure children are safeguarded whilst that person is volunteering e.g. not allowing unsupervised contact at any time?
• Should the role be subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service Check? It is important to check the DBS website guidance as there are 4 different types of DBS check which can be applied for depending on what role the person is undertaking
• Have you stated what you expect the volunteer to do when volunteering?

Safer Working Practices for Volunteers under 18

There are several issues to consider when using volunteers who are under 18:

• You need to check your liability insurance covers young volunteers, especially if they are under 16.
• For volunteers aged 16 and above, you need to set out what your procedure is for DBS checks.
• You need to consider the hours yu are asking young people to volunteer and make sure appropriate breaks are issued.

Some examples of safer working practices for volunteers under 18's:

• A risk assessment to identify any potential safeguarding issues and steps put in place to reduce any risks.
• Do not leave under 18 volunteers alone to supervise others or included in adult to child supervision ratios.
• Young people will be interviewed to determine they are the right fit for the role.
• The young person will sign a written agreement where you clearly set out what their role is and your expectations of them.
• For young people under 16 gain signed parental consent to confirm they are happy with their child becoming a volunteer. Make parents aware of your safeguarding policy and who they can contact should any concerns arise about their child during the volunteering.
• For over 16's consider the young person's individual circumstances to consider if it is still appropriate to obtain parental consent. If you do not seek parental consent, still inform parents that they are volunteering.
• Provide young volunteers with an induction and training at an age-appropriate level and suitable to their role.
• Have a Code of Conduct for volunteers under 18's, to sign and make them aware of what happens if the Code is breached.
• If young volunteers are working with other children, ensure they receive training from the Safeguarding Lead on their safeguarding responsibilities and what they need to do if they have concerns about their own or someone else's wellbeing. Provide them with a safeguarding summary statement; with the key information they need for their role.
• Provide support for young volunteers. Each volunteer has a named adult staff member mentor. Experienced young volunteers are buddied up with a new volunteer (under the guidance of a staff member).

Occasional visitors

Organisations must also carry out a risk assessment of each occasional visitor. This is good practice. These adults must not have unsupervised access to children at any time. For more regular visitors you could consider carrying out an Enhanced DBS check with barred list.

For any unchecked visitors unsupervised access to children must not occur at any time.

Volunteers and applicants from overseas

Right to work in the UK

You must verify the person's right to work in the UK, including EU nationals. If there is uncertainty about whether an individual needs permission to work in the UK, you should follow advice from The Home Office.

If the person has lived or worked outside the UK, make any further checks you consider appropriate and verify professional qualifications, as appropriate.

Volunteers and applicants from overseas should be subject to further checks. This includes an enhanced disclosure DBS check. DBS disclosures will not generally show offences committed by individuals while working abroad. You should make further checks in relation to these candidates.

Overseas Checks

If a candidate has been resident overseas for 3 months or more over the past 5 years, you should check their criminal record in that country. The Home Office has issued guidance on this.

The UK National Agency for International Qualifications and Skills, can advise on how to check international qualifications.

If you cannot obtain an overseas checks, you should conduct a risk assessment to help make an informed decision about how best to proceed.

For overseas candidates who have not previously lived in the UK and UK candidates who have lived abroad for significant periods, you should make an additional check, such as getting a certificate of good conduct from the relevant embassy or police service where this is available, as well as obtaining an enhanced DBS disclosure.

The DBS website gives advice about the availability and coverage of these certificates. The level of information they give varies from country to country.

Agency staff

Managers of early years and childcare settings must get written confirmation that an enhanced DBS check has been carried out, within the last 12 months, from the employment agency or business.

The DBS check must be clear and show that the person is suitable and fit to work with children. The details of the DBS check, i.e. number and date of issue, must be held on file. The employment agency or business must also show proof of having checked the DBS barring list within the last 12 months.

As with volunteers and students, organisations must carry out a risk assessment of each agency staff member and arrange a robust induction process.