Should staff who have worked in the same school for years, suddenly be expected to pay for their DBS check, out of their own pocket? (which can be refunded on the expense system many weeks later)

[anothernameanothername]

Any ideas if school can even do this?

I work in an independant school which has recently been bought out by another independant school group.

Today staff recieved emails telling us to look out for an email for us to get our new DBS checks, and that we are responsible for paying the £16 for it. And also that we are responsible for paying to renew it each year.

School will repay us if we submit it as expenses claim. (not a system i am familiar with and I have zero PPA time do this.)

My question is, can a school actually expect and demand that staff who they pay minimum wage to, and who dont get any PPA time to fill in expenses forms, to pay out of their own pocket, for school to remain compliant?

Then theres the addiitional issue that my email might arrive in the summer holidays!!! As a TA I have no intention of looking at my emails during my unpaid summer holiday either!

Are any other staff members, who have worked in the same job / school for many years, suddenly expected to fund their own DBS checks? (which school will get round to paying back at least a month but more likely 2 months later)

And should being paid NMW and having no PPA time come into it?

In the almost 10 years I have worked in this school, I have not had to pay for this myself, and can only assume it's sorted by office staff.

I can't answer the other points (but it sounds dodgy as to me) but I just wanted to point out that TAs don't get PPA, that is a specific part of the STPCD for teachers.

Are you in a union? Sounds like it might be worth the monthly fee if the new employer is behaving like this about DBS checks and so on..I've never paid for mine but I do work in the state sector (academy though).

I hope you get a response from someone with more knowledge than me but at least this is a bump for the thread 🙂

Thank you

I'm not bothered about not having PPA time, as a TA I like being with and working with the children, as I would expect to do, and is my job.

It's more that I dont have any paid "admin" time to do this either!!! (where as the teaching staff do have a few paid moments to do this...... and yes, i know they are also over worked and are expected to do way more than they can possibly fit into the PPA time that they are given)
They are also paid over NMW, so that comes into it, in that I can't be expected to work for free (or for less than NMW) either.

Yes, im in a union, but their phone wait was way more than an hour this evening, so I gave up!

This doesn’t sound right at all.

It's a bit odd them asking you to pay for it. I'm a teacher and also tutor for some agencies and I've never had to pay for a DBS. I do pay for the update service myself though but that's a choice.

I've also never done the admin for it in my PPA time Or during the school day. It's very quick and I've just done it in a spare moment or a lunch break. It's pretty quick and easy.

If you're really bothered about not being paid to do the admin of it and you're a class TA, won't your class teacher give you 10 minutes to do it in class? I know I would, if a TA asked me.

It's a private school, so they can really do what they want, and also - some supply agencies will make you pay for your DBS yourself, and as a private tutor if you worked in a school you would have a DBS check.

£16 is the annual cost of having your DBS registered with the update service - it's not the cost of a new DBS.

I've never found a way to apply for a DBS as an individual - a registered/recognised organisation has to apply for it on behalf of the applicant. Then, once your new DBS comes through you have a short amount of time (10days? 14 days?) to register it with the update service. This enables organisations to put the number in the top right hand corner of your DBS into the online checking system which then confirms it's still valid.

When I left my last school to go freelance, I paid them approx £50 to apply for a new DBS for me because I'd missed the window to put my new one onto the update service when it had come through three months previously,

As long as I pay my £16 a year I won't ever need (or get) a new paper copy of my DBS because schools can check it online. In reality, scarily few of them actually check, despite the paper copy I show them being from 2019 and me explaining it's on the update service...

It looks to me as if the information you've got has mixed up applying for a new DBS and the annual fee for the update service.

Yes
But I am not a supply teacher and my contract does not include paying out of my own pocket for school to remain compliant.

School have sorted it for nearly 10 years of my continuous employment.

The school has decided to use the annual update service for their staff. While they can apply for the actual check, only the staff members can apply to join the update service. This is just the way the system works.

You probably haven't had to do this previously because your school could have been relying on your first DBS. The takeover has likely strengthened safeguarding procedures which is good news for the children.

The update service takes a couple of minutes to sign up to. You won't have to watch out for any emails over the summer, you can just provide the school with the details during your contracted time.

Teachers aren't given admin time. PPA stands for planning, preparation and assessment.

Yes we have to do this now as well (including TAs, although I'm a teacher.) Just the same as you, we pay the £16 for it on the DBS update service website and then claim it back and it comes in a payslip. (Eventually...) It's only been like this for a year or two. I'm at a state academy.