The DBS Regional Outreach service
Source: gov.uk (2025-11-11)

Information around our Partnership and Engagement team and Regional Outreach service.

This page will act as a hub for all information related to our Partnership and Engagement team, and more specifically, our Regional Safeguarding Outreach Adviser.

The Partnership team

The Partnership and Engagement team at the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) work regularly with other organisations, to identify how we can collaborate and share key messages among the safeguarding community.

The Regional Outreach service, which consists of our Regional Safeguarding Outreach Adviser, has recently been launched within the Partnership and Engagement team.

Regional Outreach team

The Partnership team at the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) work regularly with other organisations, to identify how we can collaborate and share key messages among the safeguarding community. The Partnership Team is responsible for partner and stakeholder engagement across DBS. Our team of Regional Outreach Advisers sit within the Partnership Team and provide dedicated support to organisations within their allocated region.

Who are the Regional Outreach Advisers and what regions do they cover?

The Regional Safeguarding Outreach Advisers are currently working in the following regions:

If you have any general enquiries about the work of the Outreach team, please contact xxx@xxx.xx (mailto:xxx@xxx.xx).

How can the Outreach Advisers support my organisation/network?

The Outreach Advisers will be working with organisations and networks within their region in several ways, including:
- answering DBS-related queries and providing advice via phone/email
- attending meetings, training and conferences, or visiting your organisation to have a face-to-face discussion (in line with pandemic restrictions)
- developing and delivering presentations, workshops, webinars or discussions to provide an overview of DBS
- collating feedback, suggestions or comments and feeding this back into DBS
- helping organisations/networks to understand what level of DBS check can be applied for, and what information these checks will provide
- informing organisations and employers of their duty or power to refer
The below video will provide some more information. A transcript for this video is available here: DBS Regional Safeguarding Outreach Programme - Video transcript (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6026fc2ae90e0705676ddb7c/Regional_Outreach_Programme_-_Video_Transcript.pdf) (PDF, 453 KB, 1 page)

Regional Outreach Service (https://youtu.be/-R6rLDME8ZI)

Please note, this video was launched when our Regional Outreach service was only available in Wales and the East Midlands. As detailed above, we now have Regional Safeguarding Outreach Advisers in a number of other regions.

Barring referrals and the legal duty to refer

Certain employers and organisations have a legal duty to refer to DBS.

Who has a legal duty to refer?

Regulated activity providers (employers or volunteer managers of people engaging in regulated activity) and personnel suppliers* in Northern Ireland, England and Wales are legally required to make a barring referral to DBS, where conditions are met.

*A personnel supplier may be an employment agency, employment business or an educational institution, and is described as:
- an employment agency that makes arrangements to either find a work-seeker employment with a hirer, or to supply him to a hirer to employ
- an employment business that engages a work-seeker and supplies him to a hirer to work under a hirer’s control
- an educational institution, if it makes arrangements to supply a student - following a course at the institution - to a regulated activity provider such as a school
The two conditions that must be met

If you are a regulated activity provider or fall within the category of personnel supplier, you must make a barring referral to DBS when both of the following conditions have been met:

Condition one
- you withdraw permission for a person to engage in regulated activity with children and/or vulnerable adults, or you move the person to another area of work that isn’t regulated activity
This includes situations when you would have taken the above action, but the person was re-deployed, resigned, retired, or left. For example, a teacher resigns when an allegation of harm to a student is first made.

Condition two

You think the person has carried out one of the following:
- engaged in relevant conduct in relation to children and/or adults; an action or inaction has harmed a child or vulnerable adult or put them at risk or harm
- satisfied the harm test in relation to children and/or vulnerable adults e.g. there has been no relevant conduct but a risk of harm to a child or vulnerable still exists
- been cautioned or convicted of a relevant (automatic barring either with or without the right to make representations) offence
Must I make a referral?

If you are a regulated activity provider, or fall within the category of personnel supplier, you have a legal duty to refer where the relevant conditions are met.

The duty to refer applies even when a report has been made to another body such as a local authority safeguarding team. The duty to refer also applies irrespective of whether another body has made a referral to DBS in relation to the same person.

This helps to make sure that DBS has all of the relevant information to consider a case. DBS can then make a fair, consistent and thorough decision about whether to bar a person from working with vulnerable groups.

A person who is under a duty to refer and fails to do so without reasonable justification is committing an offence, and if convicted, they may be subject to a fine up to £5,000.

How to make a good quality barring referral

The below video explores what information we need as part of a barring referral and why this is important.

How to make a good quality barring referral (https://youtu.be/2RDNeveOx2s)

A transcript to accompany this video can be found here (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-to-make-a-good-quality-barring-referral-to-dbs).

Barring referral guidance

There is a selection of guidance and leaflets available across GOV.UK, which may be of use when making a barring referral:
- Guidance: Making barring referrals to DBS (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-barring-referrals-to-the-dbs)
- Leaflet: Barring referrals – how and when to make one (English) (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/782483/CCS0119367774-001_Barring_Referrals_Document__Flowchart_A5_Booklet_V3_DG-2.pdf)
- Leaflet: Barring referrals – how and when to make one (Welsh) (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/787598/Welsh_CY_CCS0119367774-001_Barring_Referrals_Document__Flowchart_A5_Booklet_V3_DG.pdf)
- Flowchart: Should I make a barring referral? (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/911179/Referrals_Flowchart.pdf)
- Online barring referral form (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-barring-referrals-to-the-dbs#online-referral-form-and-registering-for-an-online-services-account)
- Paper barring referral form (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/making-barring-referrals-to-the-dbs#paper-referral-form-post)
Contact us

If you have any questions about barring referrals, please refer to the list of Regional Safeguarding Outreach Advisers (#outreach-officers).