A number of pre-school trustees have paid the £44 cost of their DBS check despite being employed as volunteers, the Pre-School Learning Alliance claims.
It said it had been ‘inundated by calls’ from members concerned about mispayment, who have since learned from the Department for Education that volunteers were only obliged to pay the administration fee, a maximum cost of £16.
Under the previous arrangement, the Government paid for the Enhanced Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) checks for childcare workers.
The merger of the Criminal Record Bureau and the Independent Safeguarding Authority in 2012 to form the Disclosure and Barring Service, saw the CRB check replaced by the DBS last December.
The administration costs for the new DBS are no longer paid for by the Government. These costs can range from £8 to £16 per person.
According to the Alliance, pre-schools have been left to decide whether they pay on behalf of the volunteer or ask the trustee to pay independently.
Ofsted, which is undertaking the checks, has told volunteer trustees who have mistakenly paid the full cost to contact its Regulation Team in Manchester, where claims will be reviewed on a ‘case-by-case’ basis.
An Ofsted spokesperson said, ‘Since the Department for Education withdrew the sector-wide subsidy for DBS checks, which remain free for people who meet the criteria of volunteer, there has been a small handful of people requiring a refund during the transition period to the new policy.
'Ofsted is keen to make sure that those who genuinely meet the criteria receive the DBS free of charge and has been working to make the move to the new policy run as smoothly as possible.’
The Alliance's chief executive Neil Leitch (right) said, ‘It has truly been a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing.’
He added that even the administration fees were potentially a financial burden for volunteer trustees, who may be retired or unemployed, and called for a reconsideration of the charge.
‘Pre-schools generally have between five and 15 volunteer trustees, which could mean that [if they pay for volunteers’ administration fees] they will now face annual administration costs of between £40 and £240, assuming no-one steps down in this period, in which case the costs will be higher.‘Volunteer trustees are an invaluable unpaid resource for the pre-school sector and they willingly give their skills, free time and energy to help keep pre-schools open.
‘When the Government came into power it emphasised the important use of volunteers. This is a far cry from the prime minister’s vision of big society.’