Admission of Applicants with Criminal Convictions Helen Jones, SPA Admissions Support and Development Manager ARC-APG 14 February 2014

SPA Good Practice Guidance – Applicants with Criminal Convictions Originally written in 2008 Partially revised in 2011 Substantially revised Feb 2014 and published on SPA website at

SPA Good Practice Guidance – Applicants with Criminal Convictions Covers: Applicants to all courses who declare a criminal conviction Applicants to courses requiring enhanced criminal convictions disclosure (e.g. Health, Education and Social Care courses) All types of applicant – UG/PG, UCAS/direct entry Includes: Legislative background, concepts/issues involved Suggested procedures and practicalities Appendices with further details e.g. Disclosure bodies, PSRBs, summary of recent changes etc.

SPA Survey Autumn 2013 Over 60 complete responses from all 4 countries Shows significant variations in practice, e.g.: Procedures for investigating convictions e.g. Whether there is a panel, right of appeal When/how to ask for criminal convictions disclosure Practicalities around the disclosure – who pays, use of e-bulk service / umbrella bodies etc. Such variations are entirely legitimate, as long as: requirements are being met in a way that is fair to applicants and suits the needs of the institution. your processes and requirements are transparent to applicants

 Disclosure bodies of the 4 countries have different regimes  Disclosure and Barring Service (England and Wales)  AccessNI (Northern Ireland)  Disclosure Scotland  Each uses a definition of “regulated activity” (or similar), precise details not identical  Variations in degree of portability of disclosures  Scotland uses a system of scheme membership  Changes made in England and Wales likely to be introduced soon in Northern Ireland  HEIs should be aware of these differences and the need for good IAG for cross-border applicants Courses requiring disclosure

Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 CRB and ISA merged into DBS Formal ending of previous Government’s plans for registration and continuous monitoring Changed definition of “regulated activity” meaning fewer people now require checks Introduction of a degree of portability through the Update Service and the concept of “Adult” and “Child” workforces Disclosure copy no longer sent to registered body Police Act 1997 (Criminal Record Certificates: Relevant Matters) (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2013: Filtering, by which some old/minor convictions/cautions are not disclosed Changes to disclosure regime in England and Wales

England and Wales: Update Service Individual registers for the Update Service when they obtain their disclosure Any registered body can then, with the individual’s permission, perform a free “Status Check” to see whether any new information has been added to the disclosure If the Status Check reveals that there are no changes to the disclosure, the registered body can be absolutely confident that the individual’s disclosure is still valid and up-to-date, and does not need to seek a new disclosure Significant improvement on the old scheme, which required new checks periodically, and ever time an individual changed employment / activity

England and Wales: Update Service Limitations Registration costs £13 Individual has only 14 days from issuing of disclosure to register Disclosure is only portable between positions relevant to the same workforce: “Adult”, “Child” or “Adult and Child”. Moving between workforces will always require a new disclosure Update service does not allow the registered body to view the actual disclosure online: will still need to view the original If there have been changes, registered body will not see details of these, and a new disclosure will be needed If existing disclosure relates to a voluntary position, a new one will always be required when moving to a post ineligible for a free disclosure

England and Wales: Filtering Some old / minor cautions / convictions no longer appear in DBS disclosures (inc. enhanced) Cautions filtered after 6 years or after 2 years if committed under 18 Convictions filtered after 11 years or after 5.5 years if committed under 18 HOWEVER, some offences NEVER filtered including all with custodial sentences and/or on a list of serious crimes If there is more than one conviction, none will ever be filtered Employers should not ask applicants to self-disclose convictions that will be filtered, even for positions requiring an enhanced disclosure “ FILTERED” IS NOT THE SAME AS “SPENT”

England and Wales: More Information UNLOCK An independent charity providing information and advice for people with convictions Happy to advise applicants and pre-applicants about their obligations re disclosure, filtering etc. Happy for HEIs to direct inquirers to them Happy to talk to HEIs

Changes to AccessNI in Northern Ireland Definition of “Regulated Activity” has already changed along the lines of England and Wales Spring 2014: Introduction of Filtering of old/minor convictions/cautions (definitions not yet known) Spring 2015 : Introduction of portability, possibly via something akin to Update Service Registered bodies will no longer be sent copies of disclosures For updates, check:

Some particular issues for HEIs relating to courses requiring disclosure Gaining a copy of the disclosure from all applicants (England and Wales, will also apply to NI from 2015) Timing of checks: significant delays in DBS checks in 2013 caused problems Checks for Clearing / late applicants Allowing applicants some form of registration when checks are still outstanding Checks for international applicants SPA Workshop at the UCAS Admissions Conference will enable you to share thoughts on problem areas!

Thank you Any Questions?