🛑 STOP Being Stupid: Week 3 of 40
Read time: 5 minutes
The Great British Game of Risking the Children
Right, if you’re a charity that works with kids, vulnerable adults, or even occasionally has staff or volunteers interacting with them, this week is about safeguarding.
And frankly, this shouldn’t even need to be a post. It should be a flashing, siren-wailing sign in your boardroom that says: “CHECK YOUR BLOODY VOLUNTEERS.”
Yet here we are.
Because a shocking number of charities—particularly the smaller ones run by busy, well-meaning volunteers—still view the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as tedious paperwork. A box to tick. An admin burden.
It is not.
It is your first and most fundamental line of defence against putting a dangerous person in a position of trust with the people you exist to protect.
The most fundamental fail in all of charity work is risking your beneficiaries by cutting corners on safeguarding. It’s administrative stupidity that crosses the line into moral negligence.
The Stupidity of the ‘But It Costs Too Much’ Lie
We’ve all heard the excuses. But the worst of them—the one that makes me want to flip a table—is the cost argument.
“We can’t afford to check 50 volunteers, it would cost a fortune!”
This is a lie rooted in ignorance, and it is a massive failure of governance.
Here’s the truth: The DBS waives its official fee for Standard and Enhanced checks when the applicant meets the definition of a volunteer. Your charity only pays a small administrative fee (usually under £20) to the processing body—often your local Council for Voluntary Service (CVS), which acts as an ‘Umbrella Body’.
If you genuinely cannot afford a small admin fee to safeguard vulnerable people, you cannot afford to run the service. Full stop.
Get in touch with your local CVS or a registered Umbrella Body. They are literally set up to make this process affordable and simple. No excuses.
The Dual Disaster of Outdated Information
“But we checked them ten years ago!”
Brilliant. You’re still being stupid.
A DBS certificate is a snapshot in time. It’s only valid on the day it was issued. The person could have been arrested, charged, or added to a barred list the very next week. Relying on an old certificate is the same as relying on crossed fingers and vibes.
This is why you must have a clear renewal policy. While there’s no legal expiry date, best practice across the charity and education sectors is to renew Enhanced DBS checks every two to three years.
Not when you remember. Not “eventually.” Every two to three years.
The Actionable Art of NOT Being Stupid: Your DBS Action Plan
Stop reading this and review your volunteer and staff files. Right now.
1. Get the Free Checks
Stop letting cost be an excuse. Use an Umbrella Body (like your local CVS) to process Enhanced DBS checks for eligible volunteers with only the admin fee. If you don’t know who your local Umbrella Body is, Google “[your area] CVS DBS” or contact your local council.
2. Define and Renew
You must have a written Safeguarding Policy that sets a clear, mandatory renewal cycle. Every 3 years is the widely accepted minimum standard. Write it down. Enforce it. No exceptions.
3. Appoint a Lead
Designate one person—usually a senior manager or a trustee—as the Safeguarding Lead. This is not an optional extra. This is someone’s job. Make it official.
4. Use the Smart Solution: The DBS Update Service
The DBS Update Service is the only smart way to manage ongoing risk without drowning in admin.
Here’s why it’s brilliant:
- It costs £16 per year for paid staff
- It is FREE for volunteers
- It allows your organisation to perform a quick, instant, free status check online at any time to see if the certificate has changed
- If the volunteer is signed up (they must do this themselves within 30 days of getting their certificate), you may never need to request a new check—saving huge amounts of time and administrative chaos
The catch: The individual has to sign up for the Update Service themselves. Make it part of your onboarding process. Put it in your volunteer handbook. Don’t let this slip through the cracks.
The Bottom Line
Stop gambling with the lives of your beneficiaries and the future of your charity.
If you work with vulnerable people, DBS checks aren’t a nice-to-have. They’re the price of admission. They’re the bare minimum. They’re the thing that stands between you and a safeguarding disaster that ends up in the papers, destroys lives, and shuts your charity down.
Do better. Do it now.
Next Week: The Rainy Day Illusion
Next Friday, we pivot back to finance and tackle a failure that keeps auditors up at night (and should keep you up at night too):
The Rainy Day Illusion: Running a Charity With Zero Financial Reserves
Because apparently, living hand-to-mouth is a business model now.
Don’t miss a single step on your journey to administrative enlightenment (or at least avoiding the kind of catastrophe that makes the Evening News).
Subscribe to The Art of Stupidity – Real talk for people making change happen.
Know a charity still running volunteers without proper DBS checks? Forward this. It might just prevent a disaster.
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