Applying for DBS clearance

All employees of Blackpool and The Fylde College are subject to a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) enhanced disclosure. Employees are required to pay the cost of the enhanced disclosure with the amount being deducted from their first month’s salary.

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 was introduced to ensure that ex-offenders who have not re-offended for a period of time since the date of their conviction are not discriminated against when applying for a job as they are not legally required to disclose to organisations convictions that are ‘spent’ unless the job they are applying for is exempted from the Act.

Having a criminal record is not necessarily a bar to working at Blackpool and The Fylde College although having certain criminal convictions may preclude individuals from some posts which involve working with children or vulnerable adults. A DBS enhanced disclosure will show details of convictions, cautions, reprimands, final warnings or non-conviction information. It will also show whether, under Schedule 4 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Services Act 2000, the person is banned from working or seeking work with young people under the age of 18. Only if the criminal record is a Schedule 4 offence will the offer of employment be automatically withdrawn.

Applicants are advised that the College actively promotes equality of opportunity for all by ensuring sensitive, personal information, including criminal history, is detached from the main body of the application form, thus ensuring the shortlisting panel will only ever select candidates for interview based on the information submitted as part of their application and the relevance of their skills, qualifications and experience.

No two offences are exactly alike so the relevance of an individual’s criminal record will be different for each and every recruitment decision.