Volunteers
We are very lucky to have such supportive families at Warren Mead Schools and welcome volunteers to the school.
In order to become a volunteer at Warren Mead, we would need you to apply for a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check. Please see below for details, this process has recently changed and the school will now create an application via a portal for you to complete.
To start this process and create your application, we will need to see some documentation from you to verify your identity.
For this verification process, we require three pieces of ID, ideally a passport, driving license and a council tax statement (less than 1 year old) or bank statement/utility bill (less than 3 months old). We can only accept original documentation. Photocopies or documentation printed from the internet e.g. internet bank statement cannot be used. For a full list of documents which can be used for verification purposes, please see the government guidelines here. These will need to be brought to the school.
ID documents will be copied and kept on file securely until your DBS Application is complete. Once your certificate has been issued, one piece of photo ID will be kept on file and all other documentation safely destroyed.
As part of our safeguarding and volunteer procedures, we require you to read our Safeguarding policy, which can be found on our school website here.
When we verify your ID we will share with you our ‘visitor information sheets’ and ‘safeguarding sheet’. We will also ask you to sign the Volunteer Agreement to acknowledge that this information has been read and understood. This should take approximately 15 minutes.
We are available to check your ID, Wednesday to Friday. Please email gnorman@warrenmead.co.uk to arrange an appointment.
Once we have verified your ID documents, we will initiate your application. You will then receive an online form from our DBS partner ‘Strictly Education’. Once you have competed this form your application will then proceed and all the relevant checks with the police and other bodies will commence. You will be emailed once the process has been finalised and a DBS certificate issued.
Please note that this can take up to 6 weeks but is often much faster. Your certificate will be posted to your home address - once your certificate has been received, you will need to bring this into the school office so that we can update our records.
Please note, if your current surname is different to your birth surname we will also need to see documents relating to this change ie marriage certificate(s) and your birth certificate.
When completing your application, you will have the option to register for the ‘DBS Update Service’. This update service is an online subscription that allows you to keep your enhanced DBS certificate up to date and allows the school to check a certificate online. The service is free as you are a volunteer and starts from the date your DBS certificate is issued. We would strongly encourage you to sign-up to the service. We have to ensure that all volunteers at Cuddington are on site at least once a term in order for their DBS Clearance to remain valid. Due to the nature of the volunteer/helper role, we understand that this might not always be possible for you. Having an online DBS subscription enables us to check your certificate online periodically, with your consent, in case you are not able to come in every term.
Please see https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/dbs-update-service-applicant-guide/dbs-update-service-applicant-guide for further information.
