When you hire a tutor, you are trusting an adult with your child. A DBS check is one of the most important ways to check that trust is deserved.
What is a DBS check?
The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) carries out criminal record checks in England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own schemes: Disclosure Scotland (PVG) and AccessNI.
The different levels
- Basic: shows unspent convictions only.
- Standard: shows spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings.
- Enhanced: includes everything in a standard check, plus any relevant information held by local police.
- Enhanced with barred list check: also checks whether the person is barred from working with children.
For work with children, the enhanced check is the one parents usually want to see.
Do private tutors have to have one?
Private tutoring is not regulated in the UK, so a tutor working for themselves is not legally required to have a DBS check. That is exactly why it is worth asking. A tutor cannot apply for an enhanced check on their own; it has to come through an organisation. Many tutors keep their certificate up to date through the DBS Update Service.
What to ask a tutor
- What level of DBS check do you have, and how recent is it?
- Who carried it out?
- Have your identity and qualifications been checked as well?
- Where will lessons happen, and will they be recorded?
Checks are a start, not the whole story
A DBS check shows what is on record. Good safeguarding also means secure lessons, communication kept on a monitored platform, and a clear way to raise a concern.
At Education Lifeguards every teacher's identity, qualifications and police check are verified before they can teach, and every lesson is recorded for safeguarding. Read our safeguarding policy.