Case studies
Discover How Our Legal Intervention Has Restored Futures
Explore real stories of individuals just like you who turned to us at pivotal moments and how our timely legal intervention helped protect their future, dignity, and livelihood.
Care Assistant Clears Enhanced DBS Allegation That Threatened Her Nursing Career
Our client was a care assistant with ambitions to qualify as a nurse. She was working in care while training, building the experience and placements her nursing career would depend on. Then a colleague made an allegation that she had fallen asleep on duty, leaving patients unsupervised.
What happened next is striking for what did not happen. The police never spoke to her. She was never interviewed, never asked for her account, never given the opportunity to respond to the allegation. The matter was referred onwards as a safeguarding concern, and the Disclosure and Barring Service considered whether she should be barred from working in regulated activity. The DBS decided she should not be barred. On any sensible view, that should have been the end of it.
It was not. The allegation had become a police record, and when her Enhanced DBS certificate was next checked through the DBS Update Service, the allegation surfaced as relevant police information. As our guide on allegations on Enhanced DBS certificates explains, the police can disclose unproven allegations where they consider them relevant and proportionate — even where the person has never been charged, interviewed, or given any chance to reply.
The consequences were immediate. She was unable to apply for care roles with the disclosure on her certificate, and her nursing training itself was under threat, because the disclosure jeopardised the clinical placements her course required. An allegation she had never been asked about was now standing between her and the career she was working towards.
Senior Nurse Clears Intoxication Allegation from Enhanced DBS Certificate
Our client was a senior nurse working in elderly care. She had built her career around her patients, some of whom she had known and cared for over many years. Then a care worker on her ward made an allegation that changed everything: that she had been intoxicated on duty, based on a claim that she seemed overly familiar with a patient and smelled of alcohol.
The reality was very different. The patient in question was a man she had nursed for years and knew closely — her warmth with him was the familiarity of a long caring relationship, not evidence of impairment. And critically, another member of staff had in fact been intoxicated on duty around the same time. Our client, who denied drinking and was never tested, was effectively tarred by association with someone else’s misconduct.
The police interviewed her and the matter was dropped with no further action. A barring referral was pursued, and the Disclosure and Barring Service decided she should not be barred. Yet despite the NFA outcome and the decision not to bar her, the allegation surfaced on her Enhanced DBS certificate when a background check was run. As our guide on relevant police information on Enhanced DBS certificates explains, the police can disclose allegations of this kind even where every formal process has ended in her favour.
By this point she had been dismissed from her post. Between the barring referral, the certificate and the stress of it all, she had been too overwhelmed to pursue an employment appeal at the time. Now the disclosure was preventing her from finding new nursing work — an intoxication allegation on a certificate is close to unemployable territory for a nurse, however untested the allegation may be.
Doctor Stops Domestic Assault Allegation Reaching Enhanced DBS Certificate
Our client was a senior doctor in his forties with a long and trusted career behind him. His marriage was breaking down. In the middle of that breakdown, he was accused of assaulting his wife. She left the family home with the children that day, and divorce proceedings followed.
The criminal case against him collapsed almost immediately — the prosecution was dropped the same day. There was no conviction, no caution, no finding of any kind. He was left to deal with the divorce and rebuild his life, believing the criminal allegation was behind him.
Then his Enhanced DBS certificate came up for renewal through the DBS Update Service, and a letter arrived from the police: they were proposing to disclose the allegation on his certificate. As our guide on what happens when a case is dropped but still appears on your certificate explains, the police can disclose non-conviction information even where a prosecution has been discontinued — and for a doctor, a domestic assault allegation on a certificate could be career-ending. He stood to lose his job.
The window to respond was 14 days. He instructed us with the clock already running.
Medical Student Clears Community Resolution from Enhanced DBS Certificate
Our client was a young man who had just finished his A-levels and was preparing to start medical school. That summer, a standard family dispute at home escalated, and he assaulted his sister. The assault itself was fairly minor, but his sister ran from the house and, encouraged by a friend’s mother, called the police from the friend’s home. She later regretted making the call — but by then, the process was in motion.
We first acted for him at the police station stage. The police originally intended to offer him a caution. We persuaded them to deal with the matter by community resolution instead — a significantly lower-level outcome, which is not recorded on the Police National Computer. At the time, that intervention protected his future in exactly the way it was meant to.
Then came his first year at medical school, and with it the Enhanced DBS check his course required. The community resolution — held on local police records — was disclosed on his certificate. As our guide on community resolutions and Enhanced DBS checks explains, a community resolution is not a conviction or a caution, but it can still appear on an Enhanced certificate through local police records.
The stakes could hardly have been higher. With the disclosure on his certificate, he stood to lose his place at medical school before his career had even begun.