Anyone work for a Uni? Desperate for help with DD.

[HelpingDD]

She needs a dbs check to carry on with her course. There were problems with the first application and she needs the Uni to email her another code or something but no one is replying to her.

We are just absolutely desperate at this stage. She's at Kings in London.

If there is anyone who has any advice on how to get this sorted quickly we would be SO grateful.

Can she contact them via phone?

Does she have a personal tutor and have you tried contacting?

Can’t she just do it herself on the government website? They are v v easy to do , cost £18 and take about 24 hours
you need your passport and also another id like a driving licence

In order to get a full DBS, needed for teacher training etc, it needs to be completed via the employer/university so can't just get one herself. If the Uni are set up with an online DBS supplier (sounds like they are) she'll need an access code for the website, but from my experience it is always the same code/PIN. However they may use another system. I would also suggest phoning as it always takes us a few days to reply to emails as we get so many.

Is she able to go there in person?

Do they go through Disclosures /Atlantic data? I set up ours for students to complete remotely, if there are queries the student gets back to me and I either message through their site, or phone them. Thay is infrequent though. What has she tried so far? I never get the code, that goes directly to the student. I do the initial set up and then the id verification when they have completed their addresses etc.

That's so, so helpful - THANK YOU. But who is it that she should be phoning?

She's copied in her personal tutor who is well aware and says she has escalated it, but doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Thank you so much everyone for replying. I'm so, so grateful.

Try departmental admin, we set up our students, academics have no clue how it works, even when I set up theirs too!

It depends on what the issue is. I'd suggest phoning the admin/student support team for her course in the first instance and they should be able to access the system and let her know what the issue is or will tell her to call the DBS supplier.

There will be only a few people with access to the system, but her admin person should know who does if it's s a course with it as a requirement

Definitely phone though if you want a quick answer. We deal with emails by date order so anyone needing a quick response if best to phone.

At my uni, the full checks have to be done via HR who are notorious for being slow.

Agree with that, which is why we brought psychology and the counselling ones in house (departments) including for staff. Anyone outside that has to go through hr and waits ages. Mine are normally back with the applicant within 2 weeks.

Hi, I fully understand your concern and wanting to help her out, but to be honest she could have a go at trying to sort this out herself, she'd probably have a lot more info to go on than you do (look through her emails, on the Kings portal, etc).

This page, easily found on Google, tells you what to do: www.kcl.ac.uk/study/dbs-clearance-check. If she's not yet enrolled, contact the Admissions Office. If she's already enrolled, scroll down to "Faculty Contacts" and click on the relevant contact info.

If you have a quick Google, you can also find other emails for the various departments within her faculty (eg law would have law general, law admin, law assessments, etc email), and you can cc all of them as well if you're desperate.

If she needs further signposting, she can contact student services. If she already has the login, put in a request on the KCL student services portal. Otherwise/in addition, it would be faster to contact them on the helpline (they'll be open till 4pm today) or webchat, or even better, drop-in (walk-in will be quicker than booking an appointment, though she'll have to wait) on campus.

According to an email they sent out, Kings' student services just re-opened on 9 Jan and they'd be overwhelmed with service requests from students (especially international students) over the xmas break. I'm guessing it's much the same for all the other staff.

It's good to speak to her personal tutor about potential issues with her course, but do note that academics aren't actually responsible for admin etc.

Kings admin are very helpful (especially compared to other uni admin like at UCL) but extremely inefficient... However if there are major screw ups (which both I and my course mates have often faced), they will make provisions for your daughter to catch up without any impact on her course progression or grades.

Btw one of my first year course mates leeched on to a group DBS check for a Student Society they had no intention of joining, because they needed the DBS check for their course. She can have a look online to see if that's an option.

King's Student Society of course ^

Sorry for the multiple posts. I pasted the link with an additional full stop: www.kcl.ac.uk/study/dbs-clearance-check

If you google KCL DBS check I'm sure you'll find more info but she could look through her internal info (emails, portal, website) too

@mmmlemony interesting idea re the group, but she needs enhanced re specific populations, it may not work. Nice thought though amd I will bear it in mind if it works for any of mine

When done, she should subscribe to the update service, 13 quid per year, that makes it portable which is really useful for self employed people etc.

Is there a reason she needs to specifically go through King's for the DBS? I work for a uni and I need a DBS for my work. I often just order it online myself (and then expense it to my employer) rather than jump through all the hoops. If she is already paying for it herself, can she not just order it directly and then submit to her course?

Thank you so much everyone. I think she's sorted now, with the extra information posted on here. Fingers crossed it comes through in time.....