What “DBS-checked” actually means — and what it doesn’t
“All our tutors are DBS-checked” appears on almost every tutoring website in the UK. Few explain what that means, which level of check they mean, or what a DBS certificate can and cannot tell you.
Here is the plain-English version, so the phrase becomes information rather than decoration.
What a DBS check is
DBS stands for the Disclosure and Barring Service, the government body that processes criminal record checks in England and Wales. (Scotland and Northern Ireland run equivalent schemes — Disclosure Scotland and AccessNI.)
A DBS check searches official records and produces a certificate listing what was found — or confirming nothing was.
Three levels, and the differences matter
Basic. Shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions only. Anyone can request one for themselves. Fine for many jobs; not designed for work with children.
Standard. Adds spent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings (subject to filtering rules). Used for certain professions — still not the child-workforce standard.
Enhanced. Everything in a Standard check, plus any information a police force reasonably believes is relevant to the role. This is the level required of teachers and school staff, and the level that matters for tutoring. An Enhanced check can also include a search of the children’s barred list — the register of people legally prohibited from working with children.
So when a website says “DBS-checked”, the question worth asking is: which level? If the answer is not “Enhanced”, the check was not designed for the job of teaching your child.
Here is the part most parents find surprising
Private tutors are not legally required to have any DBS check at all.
Self-employed individuals cannot even apply for an Enhanced check on their own behalf — an organisation has to request it for a role that qualifies. A tutor working entirely independently may have no route to one, and no obligation to get one.
In practice this means the checking burden falls on whoever introduces the tutor: the agency, the platform — or, if you found the tutor through a listings site or a card in a newsagent’s window, nobody.
This is worth sitting with for a moment. In a classroom, checks are a legal requirement. In your kitchen or your child’s bedroom over a video call, they are optional — unless you make them a condition.
What a certificate cannot tell you
Honesty matters here, so two limitations worth knowing:
A certificate is a snapshot, not a subscription. It reflects what records showed on its issue date. Something arising afterwards does not appear on the paper. This is what the DBS Update Service exists to fix — tutors registered on it allow their certificate status to be re-checked at any time, which is meaningfully stronger than a one-off certificate from years ago.
A clear check is necessary, not sufficient. It shows an absence of recorded concerns — it does not vet teaching ability, reliability or judgement. Safeguarding is a system: checks, plus identity verification, plus visible sessions, plus communication with parents. No single document does the whole job.
Questions to ask any tutor or platform
- Is the check Enhanced, or Basic/Standard?
- When was it issued?
- Is the tutor on the Update Service, so status can be re-checked?
- Who verified the certificate — did anyone actually see it, or is it self-declared?
- Was identity verified separately, so the certificate belongs to the person teaching?
Any professional platform can answer all five without hesitation.
How Sessioned handles this
Every tutor on Sessioned holds an Enhanced DBS check, verified by us — alongside identity and qualification checks — before their first session. Not because the law requires it of tutors, but because parents reasonably assume it is happening, and we would rather make that assumption true.
Choosing help for your child? Our guide to choosing a tutor you can trust covers the rest of the picture.