Raising awareness of your duty to refer
Your duty to refer
We would like to thank CHAS and Scottish Care for their recent involvement in our new duty to refer video. The video will be published on all of our social media channels in early September as part of a wider campaign to raise awareness of the duty to refer.
If an organisation has employees or volunteers doing regulated work with children or protected adults, it has a legal duty to report harmful behaviour to Disclosure Scotland.
This duty applies whether the person is a member of the PVG scheme or not. It’s known as making a ‘referral’.
When to make a referral
You must make a referral when an individual has:
- harmed a child or protected adult
- placed a child or protected adult at risk of harm
- displayed inappropriate behaviour involving pornography
- displayed inappropriate behaviour of a sexual nature involving a child or protected adult
- given inappropriate medical treatment to a child or protected adult
And, as a result, your organisation has:
- dismissed the individual
- would or might have dismissed the individual but they left before you could do this
- has permanently moved the individual away from regulated work with children or protected adults
There are different ways 'harm' can be defined. It's important to remember that people can cause a risk of harm without doing anything directly.
Help for organisations
You can find guidance on making referrals on our website and the Volunteer Scotland Disclosure Services (VSDS) website. If you’re unsure whether to make a referral, contact the VSDS team.
Training webinars
We run free training webinars to help organisations understand the referral process. Sign up on our events page or email dsworkshop@disclosurescotland.gov.scot to find out more.
Video guide
You can watch our guide on the referral process. It has information on vulnerable groups, when to make a referral and how to complete a referral.
Sample referrals policy
You can also use our sample referrals policy to help create your organisation’s own policy on referrals. You can also use it within your disciplinary policies and procedures. You can add your organisation’s branding to it.
Contact Disclosure Scotland
You can contact us for help:
- phone: 0300 0200 040
- email: response@disclosurescotland.gov.scot