A CAMPAIGN to raise awareness of the legal duty to refer safeguarding concerns to the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) is being rolled out by the DBS across south-eastern England.

The campaign, which involves online and face-to-face workshops and materials, has a particular focus on faith-based organisations. The DBS refers to analysis suggesting that, in the past seven years, the faith sector accounts for just 0.51 per cent of all referrals.

The acting head of partnerships at the DBS, Cathy Taylor, said in a statement on Thursday that “every sector has a duty to protect vulnerable people, and we know that stronger awareness leads to stronger safeguarding.

“By working closely with faith-based organisations, and providing them with the knowledge and tools they need, we can close the referral gap and create safer communities for everyone.”

Ms Taylor said that the campaign was “vital to ensuring that all organisations understand their legal responsibilities when it comes to safeguarding”.

Pop-up clinics on legal duties in relation to referral will be held across November and December in Reading, Tonbridge, Brighton, and Southampton.

These clinics will, a statement says, include “myth-busting around the referral process”. Participants will be walked through the process of making a referral, and real-world examples will be given to demonstrate referral thresholds.

Virtual workshops for organisations to meet their regional outreach adviser are also being held. Registration for both the pop-up clinics and virtual workshops is available on the DBS’s Eventbrite page.

In due course, 60-second explanatory videos about the duty to refer will also be published on the DBS YouTube channel.

The DBS website says that a referral should be made when a person has been removed from the regulated activity that they were undertaking (which required a DBS check), owing to “action or inaction that has harmed or placed a member of a vulnerable group including children, at risk of harm”.