HR Update - Who should pay for DBS?
Karen Faux
Monday, December 2, 2013
There has been much confusion about what nursery owners can and need to do about the new DBS checks. Should the employer or the employee pay for them? Jacqui Mann explains.
With the new DBS update service, employees can have their DBS certificate kept up to date and take it with them as they move to different roles. This sounds like a great idea, but who should pay for this service?
As an employer, it can be very costly if you have to pay for all your employees. There is an annual subscription of £13 per applicant, which can soon mount up to a considerable sum.
So what are the options?
- You could make it a condition of employment that the employee must pay their annual subscription to the update service.
- The employer could pay for each employee.
So there are basically two options if you want to have up-to-date information on your employees, which in turn will enhance your safeguarding processes.
If you want to have access, what will you need to do?
- First, you will need to review your employment contracts. You may want to consider stating that employees must subscribe to the update service as a condition of their employment. If you want the employee to pay for the update service, you will need to add a clause into the employment contract.
- I recommend issuing a consent form to all employees to give you ongoing access to their information while they are employed by you.
- For current employees, you may want to consider paying for their annual subscription.
What if an employee leaves and you have paid for the subscription?
Check your employment contract to see if it contains a deductions clause. If it does, then you may well be safe to deduct the money from their final salary. If you don't have a deductions clause then don't take the money as you will be in breach of your contract.
Once an employee leaves your employment or withdraws consent, you are no longer legally allowed to carry out a status check.
When making your decision on who pays for the service think about how much it would cost you if an 'incident' occurred. Would it be a child's life? Your reputation? Your business?
Jacqui Mann is managing director of HR4 Nurseries