Does Children's Services Have a Portal To DBS?

[BSt123]

Hi
We recently failed our full SGO assessment. We were horrified to learn that the assessing Social Worker manipulated facts, and outright lied, to blacken our characters. Both our enhanced DBS checks came back totally clear, but the Social Worker still claimed there were criminal convictions. The social worker (via email) claimed they have a portal to DBS, but wanted a scan copy of the DBS certificates front and back, as they alleged that they could access the portal at that time. Is this true, or was the Social Worker trying to mislead us? If there is no such thing, we have retained the email, and can hopefully show the Court that the Social Worker has also lied about this.

[Robin D]

Any authorised body can access DBS. Normally you have to give permission but I suspect Children's Services, along with the police do not need your permission. A portal is just a posh name for a website giving access to the data, so it sounds like a bit of SW self-important piffle.

You can go to Acro.police.uk and do a Subject Access Request (SAR) which will show whatever information is held on the police national computer as a double check. Again, you could submit the SAR to the court.

Good luck. .. Robin

[BSt123]

Any authorised body can access DBS. Normally you have to give permission but I suspect Children's Services, along with the police do not need your permission. A portal is just a posh name for a website giving access to the data, so it sounds like a bit of SW self-important piffle.

You can go to Acro.police.uk and do a Subject Access Request (SAR) which will show whatever information is held on the police national computer as a double check. Again, you could submit the SAR to the court.

Good luck. .. Robin

Many thanks for the clarification. What bemuses me, is that both our enhanced DBS certificates came back totally clear....Nothing at all on any of the categories, but the social worker still chose to put on there that I had. Not just regarding that, but the social worker had lied and manipulated the truth. I guess without conclusive evidence, is it worth making an official complaint? My worry is, that the lies have prejudiced our case to get our grandchild. What is also worrying, if the social worker has done this to us, how many others have they done this to? Our grievance was forwarded to their manager, which was then forwarded to some kind of internal affairs team within that Council, but it came back that our only option is to state it to the Judge at the appeal hearing.

[Robin D]

Yes. If it's in court, you have to deal with the matter there.

Unfortunately a significant proportion of posters here complain the SW manipulate facts, or tell down tight lies. They can't all be misunderstanding things.

We ended up having a 18 month independent enquiry into Children's Services behaviours. That upheld every complaint, yet the workers complained about stayed in role.

[BSt123]

If there is a negative result on the SGO assessment, and subsequently there is a hearing for us to contest...If legal representation is not an option, will we have to cross examine the social worker...Are there any pointers that can be provided to help with this? What will the hearing entail?

[Robin D]

Hi Bob.

Many people end up having to represent themselves in person. Most find the thought worse than the actual experience. Don't forget that no-one, especially the judge, will expect you to be familiar with the court process.

Do you know if CAFCASS is involved, and if so, have they asked that the child be represented? You can ask if the solicitor for the chid will assist you in preparing a statement to the court. Whatever, you can start to prepare by going through the social worker report, line by line. Make a note of everything, what is fact, what is 'opinion'. Many don't understand the difference and treat opinion as fact when it's not.

Then try to write down what you want to say, but again, fight opinion with facts if you have them. However, keep it emotion free. For instance, where your DBS, (and hopefully you have applied for and will soon have the SAR from ACRO) so you might want to say that the social worker has made up a criminal record for you, but will not go down well, so instead say you are surprised to see that they have put criminal records in the report, and they must be mistaken as the Police National Computer has no record of it, and you have attached a copy for the court to peruse. The aim is to tackle all the points you wish to challenge the SW on in your statement. They will get a copy of it, and you may find things changes significantly once counsel for the local authority sees your statement.

If the solicitor for the child is helping you, it will become much easier, but do expect them to also disagree with you on some points.

If they will not help, then even if you decide to take legal advice yourself, the more work you have done, the better and the lower the price.

[Suzie, FRG Adviser]

Dear BSt123,

Welcome to the kinship carers’ forum and thank you for your post. I can see that you have had some advice from Robin D and I hope that the following advice and information is also helpful.

Firstly I would suggest that you contact the social worker and their manager to ask them to provide a copy of their policy regarding DBS access. This should clarify the policy in your particular local authority (as this may differ between different local authorities).

You could also contact the DBS service directly and ask them to clarify this issue. Their helpline number is 03000 200 190 and they have an email address: customerservices@dbs.gov.uk.

Finally you might find it helpful to look at information HERE on the Information Commissioner’s website.

When challenging the negative SGO assessment I would advise you to ensure that you keep it concise and specific, focussing particularly on things that are factually incorrect. Ensure that any documentation you give to the court is not too lengthy and is written in an easy to read way (for example with double spacing and use of paragraphs). We have some information in our advice sheet which you can find HERE (page 9) about what can be done when a full assessment is negative.

I hope that this is of some help. Please post again if you have any further queries or you can call our free, confidential adviceline on 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday, 9:30am – 3pm). We also have a webchat which is currently open on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

Best wishes,
Suzie