Pod Volunteer’s Recruitment of Ex-offenders Policy

Pod Volunteer aims to treat all applicants for volunteer roles fairly and not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check (for UK residents) or equivalent check (for residents of other countries) on the basis of a conviction or other information revealed. As an organisation using the DBS checking service to assess applicants’ suitability for positions of trust, Pod Volunteer complies fully with the Code of Practice.

A check is only requested after a thorough risk assessment has indicated that one is both proportionate and relevant to the volunteer role concerned. For those volunteer roles where a criminal record check is required, we provide this information on our website and during the application process.

Where a check is to form part of volunteer recruitment, we encourage all applicants to provide details of their criminal record at an early stage in the application process. We guarantee that this information will only be seen by those who need to see it as part of the application process.

Unless the nature of the volunteer role allows Pod Volunteer to ask questions about your entire criminal record, we only ask about ‘unspent’ convictions as defined in the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

We ensure that an open and measured review takes place on the subject of any offences or other matter that might be relevant to the volunteer role. Failure to reveal information that is relevant to the volunteer role sought could lead to withdrawal of an offer of volunteering.

You may also like to see our our Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity Policy.