Hi chas. I don't have an answer for you, (things are different in Scotland anyway) but I am curious where that '4 days in 30' comes from?

Chas, My understanding of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups act 2006 (as amended) is that since the coming into force of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, only those undertaking a 'Regulated Activity' relating to children fall within the scope of the Disclosure & Barring Service ("DBS"). In broad terms Regulated Activities relating to children are work (whether paid or unpaid) that involves certain close interaction with children or, in specified places, the opportunity for contact with children. An activity is "regulated" if all five of the following criteria are met, namely that the activity: i. is carried out at a school; ii. is undertaken under a contract for the provision of one of the five specified types of activity (e.g. care and supervision of children, teaching, providing advice or guidance to children, moderating public electronic communications or, conveying children) other than on a temporary or occasional basis; iii. is carried out frequently (e.g. more than 3 days in any 30 day period); iv. is carried out in connection with the purposes of the school; and v. gives a person the opportunity to have [unsupervised] contact with children. In light of the above and assuming all the requirements of CDM are met, including fencing off the building works, I don't believe that undertaking building work at a school would fall within the scope of DBS. That said, once you relate the facts of the your situation into the above criteria, you may decide differently. I hope this helps. DJ

Thanks for your comments. To respond to a couple of points raised so far the criteria of 4 or more days in a 30 day period comes from the DBS guidance and total segregation is not possible because the contractors have to cross the car park and school grounds in order to get to the site in question which is problematical for a whole host of obvious and not so obvious reasons. There is no alternative and the work is likely to take 12 months or so. The sticking point for Management is the wording of the guidance which states DBS vetting is required ".....where there is an opportunity for face to face contact." This is a wide ranging statement and to many people it means all contractors who are likely to work on site for 4 or more days will require vetting by the DBS. The problem then is the fact that it takes 6+ weeks to turn round the information and a lot of schools are going to have problems in the future especially in the summer holidays when a school may be closed to pupils but open for other activities involving children, eg holiday clubs/summer schools etc. I am interested how others may have addressed this issue.

Bob, Link is as follows; https://www.gov.uk/gover...s/dbs-regulated-activity The specific document in question is that which refers to children.