By Maria Koukou, 13th July 2023
If you have recently received your enhanced DBS certificate or a letter from the DBS informing you that they had placed you on the Children’s or Vulnerable Adults’ Barred Lists, or both, months or even years ago without your knowledge, do not panic. This is actually quite common.
The DBS will send a letter to individuals informing them of their intention to place them on the Barred Lists and giving them an opportunity to make representations as to why they should not. Even when an individual is cautioned or convicted for an automatic barring offence which means they can be barred automatically, the DBS still informs them of their inclusion to the Barred Lists and invites them to make representations as to why they ought to be removed. The only exception to this is if an individual has committed an autobar offence, with no right to representations. These are offences where, due to their severity, there is no opportunity to make representations against inclusion on the Barred List(s).
Why haven’t I received any letters from the DBS?
There are a few reasons why you never received such letters by the DBS. At the time of the allegations arising, you perhaps were moving house or the DBS did not have your home address on their records at all; perhaps you were abroad or even in prison. Regardless of the reason, now that you are aware of your inclusion to the Barred Lists, the team at Olliers can help you make “late representations” to the DBS as to why you should be removed. All we need is any correspondence you might have from the DBS such as their initial Minded to Bar letter or their Final Decision letter. If you do not have any correspondence from them, again, do not worry as we can contact the DBS and request that they send any previous correspondence to ourselves.
Late representations – Case studies
Olliers have a great success rate with late representations as we have had multiple clients removed from the Barred Lists. Here are two case examples below:
Client A had been placed on both the Children’s and Adults’ Barred Lists after many failed attempts by the DBS to confirm their address. The client was convicted of having care of ill/wilfully neglecting a person without mental capacity who was their mother. The judge in the case recognised that the client did not intentionally neglect the care of their mother, but rather, that they fell victim of their own mental health disorder. In our late representations, we were able to demonstrate that the client had been actively taking steps to address their mental health disorder, which had never affected their work in regulated activity in any case. As a result, the DBS removed Client A from both Barred Lists.
Client B had been placed on the Children’s Barred List as they had missed the Minded to Bar letter due to moving to a new address. The client faced allegations of endangerment of their child and failing to seek medical assistance after allegedly knowing that their child had been injured. The client went through criminal court proceedings for these allegations, however, it was not clear which one of the parents was at fault. After speaking to the client and considering the lengthy bundle of documents provided by the DBS, we were able to successfully argue that our client was not responsible for the alleged offences and that there was multiple evidence indicating that the other parent was. Strong character references that confirmed our client’s caring nature also helped in Client B getting removed from the Children’s Barred List.
