Procedures at County Hall have been tightened up after it was discovered that volunteers and new staff could have been working with vulnerable people without undergoing background checks.

Dorset County Council has also been criticised for not maintaining a central register of volunteers and not checking whether all of them have undergone a disclosure and barring service check.

The county council says that since the problem was highlighted it has improved its procedures and reviewed all relevant personnel records.

Auditors found 15 people since March 2018 who had started with the council in roles where they may have come into contact with vulnerable people but where no DBS check was carried out. In some cases positions were filled without checks being made because the roles had been, wrongly, identified as not needing them.

A report, to be discussed by councillors this week, (Oct 25) says that if changes being made for employed staff are carried out these will “mitigate the immediate and ongoing risks;” but warns that until the council has drawn up a comprehensive record of volunteers with information about whether or not each has been checked there could still be a problem.

“Without maintaining a central record of volunteers, the authority is unable to ensure that a DBS check is undertaken in every appropriate instance prior to volunteer work commencing,” said the report to the county’s overview and scrutiny committee.

A follow up check on the procedures which should now be in operation at the council and whether they are working is expected to be carried out in November.

The auditors looked at nine positions which were considered likely to need a DBS check. Of these three had been incorrectly assessed as not needing a check and in four cases managers incorrectly believed a DBS check had been undertaken.

A sample of ten employees with convictions showing up on DBS checks was also carried out.

“Risk assessments for two existing employees with positive DBS checks could not be located within central records held by HR….The managers were contacted by HR to ascertain whether a copy was retained locally with the manager, however no response was received.”

As a result of the concerns all posts have been looked at to see whether the correct assessments have been made about whether or not they need a DBS check and new checks made, where needed. Managers have also been issued with new guidelines.

The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is an agency of the Home Office which provides organisations with access to criminal record information and also checks whether individuals are barred from working with children and vulnerable adults.