Risk Assessment for Volunteers

Keeping Children Safe in Education (DfE, 2018) introduced for the first time the need to formally risk assess volunteers who work in schools. The information can be found in paragraphs 161 - 169.

"Under no circumstances should a volunteer in respect of whom no checks have been obtained be left unsupervised or allowed to work in regulated activity." (KCSIE, Paragraph 161)

Volunteers will either be in 'regulated' activity or not in 'regulated' activity. In essence, this mean supervised or not supervised. 

Although not statutory, many schools will do an enhanced DBS Check for volunteers, whether they are in regulated activity or not. By law, barred list checks must not be done for people who are not in regulated activity.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) themselves do not charge for checks on volunteers, but if a school uses a company to carry out checks on their behalf, they may charge a fee.

Risk Assessment Form

This risk assessment is a good starting pointing to help ascertain whether a volunteer does need an enhanced DBS check or not: Risk Assessment for Volunteers v.1.2 DRAFT