Keeping up-to-date background checks for your volunteers and staff is important to ensure that you meet an legal requirements, as well as ensuring that your youth are safe with your volunteers. This section looks at how to use Elvanto to help meet your local regulations.
Local Legal Requirements
Different parts of the world have different legal requirements for protecting your youth, and Elvanto is designed in such a way that you can customize the system to meet the different requirements that churches face.
Two features that are often used to help churches meet these requirements are Custom Fields and Standard Reports. Using these together allow you to find the people that you are looking for with ease.
While this list is by no means comprehensives, there are several examples below that may be useful to help you discover how to meet your local requirements.
Woodbush United Gospel Assembly
In Woodbush, all volunteers and staff that work with youth must complete a background check and carry a card indicating the success of this check at all times when working with youth. The volunteers and staff must perform this check every 3 years. Certain people, such as Police Officers and Teachers are exempt from this, as they have more stringent requirements to follow. An appointed representative must sight these documents.
Woodbush is required to store the following information.
-
Card Number AND
-
Card Expiration Date
Or, if the person is exempt:
-
Reason for being Exempt.
In this example, the following custom fields would be needed to meet local regulations.
-
Card Number – Number field
-
Card Expiration Date – Date field
-
Exempt Reason – Dropdown (Can select only one option) field. The options for this field would line up with the possible reasons for exemption.
Windfield Methodist Soul Center
In Windfield all volunteers and staff who are aged 14 and above that work with youth must complete a simple background check every 2 years.
Churches in the same area as Windfield are required to store the following information.
-
The date of the last background check AND
-
The outcome of the last background check.
In this example, the following custom fields would be needed to meet local regulations.
-
Date of last Background Check – Date field
-
Outcome of last Background Check – Dropdown (Can select only one option) field. The options for this field would be a basic “Passed” or “Failed” option.
Brightbell Empowered Christian Church
In a different area again, all volunteers and staff who work with youth, who are aged 18 and over, must complete a background check every 5 years.
Churches in this area are required to store the following information.
-
The date of the last check
-
The reference number of the last check
-
The date they validated the check
-
The outcome of the validation check.
In this example, the following custom fields would be needed to meet location regulations.
-
Date of last check – Date Field
-
Reference number of last check – Number Field
-
Validation Date – Date field
-
Outcome of Validation Check – Dropdown (can select one option) field.
This list is not exhaustive, and should be used as a guide only. Always make sure you keep up-to-date with any local requirements.
Who is responsible for this information in your church
While the effect on how you use Elvanto is minimal, knowing who is responsible for ensuring this data is up to date is still a key component in making the system work best for you. This person, or group of people, will need to have access to individuals profiles, and the fields that you are using to record this information. If you’re having any reports emailed monthly, this person would normally be the person that these emails get sent to.
In the three examples above the system works best if you have a specific person, or team of people, responsible for following up these details. This person or team of people can then have emails sent to them every month telling them who they need to follow up.
Who can update this information and how it gets updated.
As this information often relates directly to legal requirements, you will want to make sure that only the correct people can update this information, to make sure that only correct data is being updated. As the nature of local regulations can change who is required to update this information, it depends on your local regulations as to who you allow to update this information in Elvanto.
We recommend locking these fields down so that only specific access permissions can edit these fields, and if desired you can also lock them down so that only specific access permissions can view these fields too. These people can then be notified of people that they need to follow up, as mentioned in the section below.
For all three examples the workflow for this is very similar.
-
Youth Pastor and their team receive an update on people who need to have their information updated.
-
Staff members follow these members up
-
Once these members have updated information, staff members enter that information into the system.
How you want to report on this data
As with the above scenarios, reporting on this data varies from location to location, and even from church to church within those locations as each church will have different policies and ways that they ensure they follow the regulations that apply to them. Below are examples of how the previously described churches could use to go about reporting on this information.
Reporting on this data within the system helps ensure that you’ve uploaded the correct information into the system, helps to ensure that your users have the qualifications they require to perform their tasks and to ensure you’re meeting any local legal regulations.
Woodbush United Gospel Assembly
Woodbush uses the system to generate a number of reports to show people that fall into one of three categories.
-
People who work with youth who do not have the required information entered into the system, or invalid dates entered into the system.
-
People who work with youth who need to renew their information in the next 3 months.
-
People who work with youth and have information entered in the system but their information has expired.
To do this, Woodbush has set up their reports as follows.
People who work with youth who do not have the required information entered into the system, or invalid dates entered into the system
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Team
-
Card Exemption Is Empty
-
Age Is Greater Than 17
-
Card Number Is Empty
-
Card Expiration Date Is Empty
Filter Logic:
Advanced – 1 AND 2 AND 3 AND (4 OR 5)
This report then shows all people who need to act immediately, as they have no information entered into the system.
People who work with youth who need to renew or register their information in the next 3 months
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Team
-
Card Exemption Is Empty
-
Age Is Greater Than 17
-
Card Expiration Date Is Within The Next 3 MONTHS
-
Age Equals 17
-
Birthday Is Within the Next 3 Months
-
Card Number Is Empty
Filter Logic:
Advanced – 1 AND 2 AND (3 AND 4) OR (5 AND 6 AND 7)
This report then shows all people who have current information but who are going to need to renew their information in the next 3 Months or those that are turning 18 soon and have not yet registered their information.
People who work with youth and have information entered in the system but their information has expired
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Teams
-
Card Exemption Is Empty
-
Age Is Greater Than 17
-
Card Expiration Date Is Not In The Next 3 Years
Filter Logic:
Match all of the following Fields
This report shows all people who have information in the system, but the expiration date is not within the valid range to be a valid date. As the expiration date of these cards is always 3 years from the current date, this date can not lie outside of the next 3 years without being invalid or expired.
These three reports are then compiled into a single Comprehensive Report and automatically emailed to their Youth Pastor every month.
Windfield Methodist Soul Center
Windfield’s reporting needs are a lot simpler than those at Woodbush due to easier to follow regulations. At Windfield the main concerns are people that fall into four categories.
-
Volunteers and staff who have not had a background check
-
Volunteers and staff whose last background check was not successful
-
Volunteers and staff whose last background check is expiring soon
-
Volunteers and staff whose last background check has expired
To do this, Windfield has set up the following reports
Volunteers and staff who have not had a background check
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Teams
-
Age Is Greater Than 13
-
Background Check Result is Empty
Filter Logic:
Match all of the following Fields
This report shows all people in the Youth Team who do not have information recorded about a background check yet.
Volunteers and staff whose last background check was not successful
<em<Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Teams
-
Age Is Greater Than 13
-
Background Check Result Equals Unsuccessful
Filter Logic:
Match all of the following Fields
This report will then show anyone who is 14 years or older and has ‘Unsuccessful’ in their background check result field.
Volunteers and staff whose last background check is expiring soon
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Teams
-
Age Is Greater Than 13
-
Date of last Background Check Is In the Last 2 Years
-
Date of last Background Check is Not In The Last 21 Months
Filter Logic:
Match all of the following Fields
This report then shows people whose background checks are coming up to 2 years old, and will need to be renewed soon.
Volunteers and staff whose last background check has expired
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Teams
-
Age Is Greater Than 13
-
Date of last Background Check Is Not In The Last 2 Years.
Filter Logic:
Match all of the following Fields
This report finds anyone whose last background check has since expired. It also serves to report on anyone whose background check date is in the future, which would indicate that it’s been entered incorrectly.
Just like at Woodbush, these reports are then compiled into a single Comprehensive Report and automatically emailed to their Youth Pastor every month..
Brightbell Empowered Christian Church
At Brightbell, the Youth Pastor needs to follow up on people that fall into the following
-
Youth Team Members missing required information
-
Youth Team Members who need to renew their information soon
-
Youth Team Members who have submitted new information, but need it to be validated soon.
-
Youth Team Members who have submitted new information, but need it to be validated urgently.
-
Youth Team Members whose information has expired.
The following 5 reports help them keep on top of this information.
Youth Team Members with no information recorded
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Team
-
Age is Greater Than 17
-
Date of last check Is Empty
-
Reference number of last check Is Empty
Filter Criteria:
Advanced – 1 AND 2 AND (3 OR 4)
This report then picks up anyone that’s in the Youth Team that is missing any of the required information.
Youth Team Members who need to renew their information soon
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Team
-
Age is Greater Than 17
-
Date of last check Is Within The Last 5 Years
-
Date of last check Is Not Within The Last 54 Months
-
Age Equals 17
-
Birthdate Is In The Next 6 Months
-
Date of last check Is Empty
Filter Criteria:
Advanced: 1 AND (2 AND 3 AND 4) OR (5 AND 6 AND 7)
This report then finds anyone that has existing information that needs to update their information in the next 6 months, or those that are turning 18 in the next 6 months that will need to register their information.
Youth Team Members who have submitted new information, but need it to be validated soon
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Team
-
Age is Greater Than 17
-
Date of last check Is In The Last 3 Months
-
Validation Date Is Not In The Last 3 Months
Filter Criteria:
Match all the following Fields.
This report finds anyone that has recently updated their information, but hasn’t had their information validated yet.
Youth Team Members who have submitted new information, but need it to be validated urgently
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Team
-
Age is Greater Than 17
-
Date of last check Is In The Last 5 Years
-
Validation Date Is Not In The Last 5 Years
Filter Criteria
Match all the following Fields
This report finds anyone that has updated their information, but has not had validation done yet. This is similar to the report above, but lists those that need their information validated first.
Youth Team Members whose information has expired
Filters:
-
Departments Contains Youth Team
-
Age is Greater Than 17
-
Date of last check Is Not In The Last 5 Years.
Filter Criteria:
Match All The Following Fields.
This report shows all people whose information has expired, and haven’t updated their information on time.
Like Woodbush and Windfield, these reports are then compiled into a single Comprehensive Report and automatically emailed to their Youth Pastor every month.