A Centre for Voluntary Services

What is a Disclosure?

A Disclosure is a document containing information held by the police and government departments. It enables organisations to check the background of job applicants (paid or voluntary) to ensure that they do not have a history that would make them unsuitable for the post they are applying for. Disclosures will provide details of a person's criminal record, including convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings held in the police national computer (PNC).

If the position involved working with children, Disclosures will also contain details from lists held by the Department of Health (DoH) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and those considered unsuitable for this type of work. depending upon the level of Disclosure, it might also contain information held by local police forces. There is now only one type of Disclosure:

Enhanced Disclosure

These are for posts involving a substantial degree of contact with children or vulnerable adults. In general the type of work would involve regularly caring for, supervising, training or being in sole charge of such people.
This level of Disclosure includes a check of local police records. Exceptionally, and in a very small number of circumstances (typically to protect current police investigations), additional information may be sent under separate cover to the counter-signatory at Amber Valley CVS and would not be revealed to the applicant.
All enhanced Disclosures involve an extra level of checking with the local police force records in addition to checks with the Police National Computer (PNC) and the government department lists held by the DfES and DoH, where appropriate.

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