Joining the PVG Scheme
To join the PVG Scheme, applicants must complete the relevant online PVG application. This is done via an email link which is sent to the applicant directly from Disclosure Scotland. Information on the online PVG process can be found in the Safe Recruitment section of The Church of Scotland Safeguarding Service website.
As of November 2022, PVG Scheme Membership costs £59. A PVG Scheme Update costs £18. There is no charge to the person if they are a volunteer. The latest costs can be found on the Disclosure Scotland website.
Once their membership is approved, the applicant will receive their PVG Scheme Record Certificate or PVG Short Scheme Record Disclosure and the Church of Scotland will also receive a copy of the Certificate. The Certificate will detail the applicant's PVG Scheme Membership number, Membership status, Consideration status and any vetting information.
The Church of Scotland will carry out a risk assessment to determine an applicant's suitability to do regulated work with children and/or protected adults.
Click on the headings below for more information.
Applicants or volunteers who are already members of the PVG scheme
If the applicant is already a PVG Scheme member for the children and/or adult workforce and is applying to work for either or both workforces for the Church, then they will complete an application as an Existing Member.
Information on the online PVG process can be found in the Safe Recruitment section of The Church of Scotland Safeguarding Service website.
The applicant will then receive either a PVG Scheme Record or PVG Short Scheme Record Disclosure.
For all Existing Member applications/updates, a Safeguarding Coordinator will still be required to verify identification and the applicant will require to complete the SG03 Self-Disclosure Form.
The applicant should not start work until the Safeguarding Coordinator has received a clearance letter.
Boys’ Brigade leaders
The minimum age to become a leader (leader refers to all leader categories including helper) in The Boys’ Brigade is 18 years old.
It is best practice for young people in the Boys' Brigade to wait until the session they become 19 years old to take up a leadership position. This avoids any issues linked to position of trust in relation to their peers who may still be accessing Boys' Brigade as service users.
Young leaders – these are young people that are not members of The Boys’ Brigade. Young leaders can support The Boys' Brigade, often as part of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme (or similar) from the age of 14 years old – 18 years old. This is not a leadership role and they are not in a position of trust. When they reach their 18th birthday, they must either leave the Boys' Brigade or follow safer recruitment (in advance of their 18th birthday) and register as a leader.
Young leaders and young people becoming leaders can apply for PVG a few months before their 18th birthday. A Safeguarding Coordinator may receive PVG clearance from the Safeguarding Service for a Boys' Brigade applicant who is under 18 years old, however, the applicant must not be put in to post until they are 18 years old.
Girls’ Brigade leaders
As from 1 December 2021, it was agreed that young women who are members of GB Scotland and 16+, who have expressed a desire to undertake GB Scotland’s Leadership Training programme, should undertake the full recruitment process, including becoming members of the PVG Scheme. (Previously, these young women didn’t join the PVG Scheme until just before their 18th birthday.)
Please note that this is only for those enrolling on the Leadership Training programme and all other 16 and 17-year-old members will remain as a Brigadier.
The policy remains the same for potential Leaders who are aged 18 and over in that they must undertake normal recruitment processes and become members of the PVG Scheme prior to working in any Girls’ Brigade company.
Joining the PVG Scheme if you have a conviction
Convictions are not an automatic bar to doing regulated work with children or protected adults. Any conviction information will be risk-assessed as appropriate by the Safeguarding Service, see the section on the Recruitment Sub Committee on the Summary of the Recruitment Process page.