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<p>Volunteers play an important role in supporting children in many of our schools.
As decisions whether to engage volunteers are made locally by schools, the department
does not collect data on the number of volunteers in schools or data on safeguarding
checks carried out for volunteers. There is, therefore, no data held on which to base
an estimate of safeguarding checks carried out.</p><p>The department’s statutory safeguarding
guidance ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, makes clear that any volunteer should
not be deployed to work unsupervised with children without appropriate checks. Where
schools decide that a DBS criminal record check is appropriate for a volunteer, these
can be obtained free of any charge from DBS. There are no plans currently to change
these arrangements.</p><p> </p><p>There is a legal requirement for a DBS criminal
record check for school governors, which are predominantly volunteer roles, including
any parent governors. School governing boards have a key role in providing clarity
of vision, and promoting the ethos and direction of the school and setting the school's
aims and policies. DBS and other pre-appointment safeguarding checks, provide reassurance
to the governing board that an individual is not disqualified from holding office
as a governor and is suitable for the position.</p>
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