Fixing the DBS Gaps in HR Practice: How Inconsistent Checks Can Lead to Uncontrolled Risk

Over 1.7 million enhanced DBS checks are carried out each year across the education sector.

But the real risk isn’t the volume - it’s the inconsistency.

When DBS processes are applied differently across schools, HR teams, or individual hiring managers, small variations in practice can quickly escalate into serious safeguarding, legal, and reputational risks. Even small inconsistencies from how ID is verified to how decisions are recorded can undermine the integrity of the entire recruitment process.

Without a structured and standardised approach, schools and trusts expose themselves to:

• - Unsafe and unlawful recruitment decisions
• - Compliance failures against statutory guidance, such as Keeping Children Safe in Education
• - Bias and fairness risks due to inconsistent or informal online checks
• - Audit and inspection challenges, where decisions cannot be clearly evidenced or justified
• - Operational inefficiencies, including delays, duplicated work, and unnecessary costs

For HR professionals, safer recruitment is not just an operational task; it’s a core responsibility in ensuring hiring decisions are safe, consistent, and legally robust.

Because behind every check, every process, and every decision is something bigger: the safety of children and the responsibility placed on schools to make the right call.

Join us for our next People Matters webinar, where we'll explore the hidden risks in DBS and Social media checking, what implications this has on HR practices and why it is important for schools and trusts to get this right. 

This Session will help you:

• Identify hidden HR risks within identity verification processes, and understand how inconsistencies create exposure
• Build confidence in conducting online checks proportionately, ensuring compliance with safeguarding guidance while avoiding unnecessary intrusion or bias
• Understand what ‘good’ looks like from an HR perspective, including consistency, auditability, and defensible decision-making
• Implement practical steps to strengthen compliance, reduce subjectivity, and create recruitment processes that stand up to scrutiny from inspectors and regulators

Who this session is for? This session is designed for school and trust senior leadership teams and HR Directors who want to focus on strengthening decision-making and sustainable improvement.

Can’t make the webinar? Not to worry… Register anyway, and we’ll send you a copy of the recording. We look forward to seeing you there!

Introducing our Speaker

Pauline Russell, Senior HR Consultant