More than 1,300 individuals in Northern Ireland have been barred from working with children or vulnerable adults, it can be revealed.
This figures which were provided to Belfast Live by the Disclosure and Barring Service show that 1,356 individuals in Northern Ireland have been placed on a barred list.
Of those, 156 individuals have been barred from working with vulnerable adults, 592 have been barred from working with children and 608 individuals have been barred from working with both children and vulnerable adults.
The publication of these figures comes after a conference, which focused on enhancing safeguarding in Northern Ireland, was held in Belfast earlier this week.
Unlike in England and Wales, where the DBS carries out both disclosures and barring, in Northern Ireland, the functions of disclosure and barring are split between Access NI and the DBS, with Acess NI overseeing the issuing of disclosure certificates and the DBS overseeing the barred list.
Speaking exclusively to Belfast Live at the conference, Eric Robinson, CEO of the DBS explained what it means when someone is placed on a barred list.
"[The barring process] starts with somebody doing something, often at work or sometimes outside work, that relates to the type of behaviour that would cause concern in terms of that person having access to children or vulnerable adults," he explained.
"That could be an offence, it could be something at work, say you work in a care home or a Sunday school or a hospital, and they do something, then the employer then needs to contact us to say that they think this person shouldn't be working withpeople who are vulnerable or children.
"We then do an assessment of the information that we have got or been sent and we make a decision either to bar that person or not to bar that person based on the evidence, and if we decide to bar them, we'll contact that person and they'll have an opportunity to respond, put in representations about why they shouldn't be barred, we'll then make a decision."
Eric explained that all employers have a legal duty to raise concerns around safeguarding with the DBS.
"If [employers] have concerns about somebody who they employ, either directly or in a voluntary capacity,it's their responsibility to refer to us.
"Our understanding is that for most organisations, this is a rare event, and so they need help in better understanding their responsibilities, what they have to do and how they have to do things.
"So, for example, we've recently set up a digital way of people referring to us, and part of the reason we're here [in Northern Irealnd] is to engage with those organisations about what their responsibilities are and how we can help them with that by providing information.
"The important thing from my perspective is that this is an important area of safeguarding that employers are doing better and better in terms of understanding, but the main message is that we know it's complicated, and we are here to help."
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