Who needs a DBS check?
Anyone who works regularly (eg four times per month or more) at your out of school club and who has unsupervised access to the children, whether on a voluntary or employed basis, must have an enhanced DBS check.
See Who needs a DBS check? >
If your club is Ofsted-registered, Ofsted will obtain an enhanced DBS check on the registered person at the time of registration as part of the application process. It is then the registered person's responsibility to obtain appropriate DBS checks on the rest of the staff at the club.
If you operate a club that is exempt from registration with Ofsted we recommend you use the OOSA Vetting Scheme to obtain an enhanced DBS.
You must not allow any member of staff to work unsupervised with children until a satisfactory enhanced DBS check has been received.
See DBS, safeguarding and safe recruitment >
If you are still unsure whether a DBS check is required, use the helpful DBS eligibility tool to checker. Work your way through a series of questions and it will tell you what level of check is needed if any. You can access it here
Note that you cannot obtain DBS checks for anyone under 16 — for example school work experience placements, or children volunteering as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award.
Cost of DBS checks
The enhanced DBS check itself costs £40.00 and umbrella bodies typically charge an additional fee of between £9.00 and £14.00 to process your application online. There's sometimes a higher administration charge for paper-based applications.
If any of your staff are unpaid volunteers, the DBS makes no charge for their DBS check, but you will still normally have to pay an admininstration fee to whichever umbrella body processes your DBS application.
The DBS Update scheme costs £13 per year.
Umbrella bodies
Some of the biggest DBS checking organisations are:
You don't have to use the organisations listed above. Your local authority may have a preferred umbrella body. Or if your club is for a specific activity (eg football, karate, or dance) which has a membership organisation, you may find that the national organisation already is an umbrella body or can recommend one.
You could use an independent umbrella organisation, for example:
Or you can use the tool on the DBS section of the GOV.UK web site to find a suitable umbrella body:
Find a DBS umbrella body company >
The Out of School Alliance has a Vetting Scheme for those people who operate their own settings so cannot take out a DBS on themselves. You can find out more here
DBS Update Service
The DBS Update service was brought in to provide portability between employers of DBS checks, and to allow for 'in service' continuation of suitability checks. You must register for the Update Service within 30 days of the certificate being issued. Once registered (and membership fee of £13 continues to be paid) employers can with permission make an check of any 'updated' information against a member's DBS status. More details here
Related articles
For a detailed breakdown of which staff members require a DBS check, including a handy flow-chart for out of school clubs, which has been prepared specially for us by SAFE CIC, see:
Who needs a DBS check?
To find out more about whether you can re-use existing DBS checks for your staff, and how often they need renewing, see:
DBS checks for staff
To find out how to get an up-to-date enhanced DBS check via the OOSA Vetting Scheme see:
OOSA Vetting Scheme
For more information about the current legal framework for child protection and safe recruitment, see:
DBS, safeguarding and safe recruitment.