The Short Answer

Before someone applies, the page should tell them four things. What the role involves, in tasks and hours. What it will cost them, and what you pay back. Whether it needs a criminal record check, and what a record would mean. How their application data will be used, on the form itself. Careers pages add a route to ask for adjustments and, for roles based in the EU, the pay or its range before interview.

A role page that saves the check, the cost and the commitment for later has not spared the applicant a question. It has moved it to after they have committed.

The section checklist carries volunteers and candidates as twelve rows. Two are tagged Required, both for the privacy notice, and three are Conditional. The other seven are best practice, which is a reason to get them right rather than to skip them.

The Role Page Sets the Terms

No law requires a volunteer role page. It is still the page where someone decides whether they can do this, and most of what it needs is plain fact. The tasks. The time: hours, how often and for how long you hope they stay. Where it happens. The training and induction. Any check the role needs. What expenses are paid. What difference the role makes.

Where the work can be done from home, say so on the role and let the listing filter by it. NCVO's Time Well Spent 2023 survey of adults in Great Britain found that 18% of recent volunteers volunteered only remotely. A listing that cannot show those roles separately makes that group read every one to find them.

Induction belongs on the role page too. A line on what the first few weeks look like, any e-learning and the safeguarding training answers the question most new volunteers are too polite to ask.

Expenses, Stated Before Anyone Is Out of Pocket

Cost is a reason people do not start. In the same NCVO survey, 14% of people who had not volunteered in the past year gave worry about ending up out of pocket as a reason. A role page that says which expenses are paid, and links to a policy saying how to claim and how long payment takes, answers that worry before it becomes a decision.

There is a line the page must not cross. GOV.UK's guidance on volunteer pay and expenses says volunteers are not paid for their time but may get money to cover expenses, usually food, drink, travel or equipment they need to buy. It adds that someone might be classed as an employee or worker rather than a volunteer if they get any other payment, reward or benefit in kind. So describe expenses as costs paid back, and avoid wording that reads as payment for time. Whether a particular arrangement crosses the line is a question for your HR or legal adviser. The page's job is not to suggest one that does.

Criminal Record Checks: Say So Before They Apply

There is no duty to publish a page about checks. There is a rule about telling people, and the role page is the natural place to follow it.

In England and Wales, the DBS Code of Practice, whose November 2015 edition is still the current one, binds Registered Bodies and anyone using the Update Service. They must have a written policy on the suitability of ex-offenders, available to applicants on request. They must tell applicants in advance that a check is required, and tell them how a criminal record could affect the recruitment decision. A charity checking through an umbrella body is a client, and the Code says clients should make the policy available as well.

Northern Ireland has a similar rule. nidirect's guidance on AccessNI employer obligations says an employer using AccessNI checks must have a written policy on recruiting ex-offenders, and that job applicants and volunteers can ask for a copy.

Scotland goes further. Disclosure Scotland says that since 1 April 2025, anyone carrying out a regulated role with children or protected adults, paid or voluntary, must be a member of the PVG scheme before starting. A role page for such a role should say so.

Do not explain eligibility on the page. Which roles qualify for which check is set by law, and a summary on a charity site goes out of date without anyone noticing. Link the official sources instead. GOV.UK's DBS guidance for employers says standard and enhanced checks are only available where the employer is entitled by law to ask, and that only standard and enhanced volunteer applications are free of charge. Disclosure Scotland's page above links its own guidance on regulated roles.

One thing the general form should not do is ask everyone to declare convictions. The ICO says criminal offence data covers personal data relating to convictions and offences, including the fact that someone has none. A tick box on every application collects it from people whose role needs no check at all. I would leave it off the general form and let the check policy decide when, and for which roles, the question is asked.

The Application Form

The privacy information is the one part that is plainly required. Article 13 of the UK GDPR says it must be provided at the time the personal data are obtained. On a web form that means on the form, or one clear link from it, not in a policy the applicant has to go looking for. It should say who reads the application, how long it is kept and whether it is shared, for instance with an umbrella body running a check. The full list of what a notice must contain is in the GDPR checklist for charity websites.

Keep the form short. Ask what you need to place someone, not everything you might need once they are placed. Labels, error messages, keyboard access and where submissions land are covered in form design for nonprofit websites.

Add one question about adjustments: what would help you apply, attend or take part. For volunteers it is good practice. It costs one field, and it tells the applicant that asking is expected.

Candidates: Adjustments, Safeguarding and Pay

A careers page carries the same privacy duty. Wherever applicant data is collected, a candidate privacy notice goes with it.

The adjustments route matters more here, because the duty behind it waits to be triggered. Section 39(5) of the Equality Act 2010 applies the duty to make reasonable adjustments to employers. But Schedule 8, paragraph 20 says it does not arise if the employer does not know, and could not reasonably be expected to know, that a disabled person is or may be an applicant. The route on the page is how the employer comes to know.

The Act also shapes the question. Section 60 generally stops an employer in Great Britain asking about an applicant's health before offering work. It allows a question that is necessary to establish whether adjustments are needed for an assessment. So the page should ask what the applicant needs for the interview or the test, and nothing about their health. Job packs in accessible formats belong with it.

Say on the careers page that safeguarding is part of hiring, not only part of policy. Tearfund's Work with us page states its safeguarding commitment and that it is a member of the SCHR Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, so a candidate knows before applying. I loaded it on 1 October 2026. What the safeguarding page itself should let people do is covered in what a safeguarding page should let people do.

For roles based in an EU member state, the Pay Transparency Directive had to be transposed by 7 June 2026. It gives applicants the right to the starting pay or its range before interview, "such as in a published job vacancy notice", and bars employers from asking about pay history. The detail sits in each country's own law, so check it with an adviser there.

Who Owns Each Page

These pages draw on documents owned by four people. The volunteering lead owns the role pages and the expenses policy. HR owns the candidate notice and the job packs. The data protection lead signs off the privacy text on both forms. The safeguarding lead owns the ex-offender policy and the decision about which roles need a check.

The website needs each of them to know that a change to their document is a change to a page. When the expenses policy changes, or a role becomes eligible for a check, the role page changes the same day. Otherwise the page promises one thing and the policy pays another.

The page cannot make a role easier. It can make sure nobody learns the hard parts last.

Further Reading

What This Post Does Not Cover

This is about what the pages tell someone before they apply, and who keeps them current. It is not legal, HR or tax advice. Whether a role is eligible for a check, whether an expenses arrangement is lawful and what your recruitment process must do are questions for your HR lead and your own adviser.

It does not explain DBS, PVG or AccessNI eligibility, which the official pages linked above do. It does not cover what happens after someone is in post: the volunteer hub, which inherits every data protection duty the rest of the site has once it holds personal data, or the staff login link.