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Which check do I need to teach children - DBS, PVG or AccessNI?

Free, no sign-up, and we never ask for your name, your date of birth or a certificate number. Pick your nation and see what the published guidance says.

This page needs JavaScript to work through your answers. Everything below still applies: the three schemes, what each one is called, who runs it, and where the published guidance sits.

Which nation do you teach in?
Who do you teach?
How are you engaged?
How do you teach?
Where do you teach?
How often do you do this teaching?
Add more detail
What do you already hold?

Level only, and only if you know it. Never a certificate number.

Which level, if you know?

We do not ask for a name, an address, a date of birth, a certificate number or anything about a conviction. None of it is needed to answer this, and a directory is not the place to type it.

What I asked, and what the published guidance said

A record of the questions this page put and the guidance it read. It is not a check and it says nothing about the person who printed it.

What this page is not

  • This is not a check, and it is not a step in getting one. Nothing here confers anything.
  • It is guidance, not legal advice, and it does not decide whether you are eligible for anything.
  • Confirm your own position with the body named in your result before you rely on it.
  • We are not the Disclosure and Barring Service, Disclosure Scotland or AccessNI, and we are not connected to any of them.

Three schemes, four nations

ENGLANDWALESDBSSCOTLANDPVG SCHEMENORTHERN IRELANDACCESSNI

Pick your nation above and this becomes your answer.

  • You can check the criminal record of someone applying for a role by getting a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. GOV.UK, Check someone's criminal record, retrieved 20 August 2026
  • The Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme is managed by Disclosure Scotland. mygov.scot, PVG scheme, last updated 12 Jun 2026
  • A self-employed person or a personal employee ... can apply for their own AccessNI standard or enhanced check using the services of an Umbrella Body. nidirect, Checks for self-employed or personal employees, retrieved 20 August 2026

Optional. These sharpen the answer; none of them is needed for a result.

Call 999 if the child is at immediate risk. If it is not an emergency, report it online or call 101.

Call 999 if the child is at immediate risk. If it's not an emergency, you can report the crime online or call 101. You do not need to be sure that a child or young person has been abused - it's OK to report a suspicion.

GOV.UK, Report child abuse, retrieved 20 August 2026

NSPCC (for adults) Telephone: 0808 800 5000; ChildLine (for children and young people) Telephone: 0800 1111 (free); Report child abuse in education - NSPCC (for children, young people and adults) Telephone: 0800 136 663 (free)

GOV.UK, Report child abuse, retrieved 20 August 2026

How this page works

You pick a nation and describe what you actually do with pupils. The page then reads a small, versioned dataset built from the responsible bodies' own published pages, and shows you the lines that bear on your situation, quoted, with the date each page was last updated. Your result is looked up, not written. Nothing here is summarised into a verdict.

It asks about your work rather than your job title because the guidance does the same. The published test for England, Wales and Northern Ireland turns on teaching children "on more than 3 days in a 30-day period or overnight between 2am and 6am with the opportunity for face-to-face contact". Not on whether you call yourself a tutor.

Scotland runs on a different scheme with a different question. There, the test is whether the role is a regulated role, and Disclosure Scotland is blunt about the limits of any list: "It's not possible to give a complete list of regulated roles, because roles change."

Wales sits with England under the DBS. That pairing catches people out, so the page states it rather than leaving you to infer it.

ENGLAND WALES DBS SCOTLAND PVG SCHEME NORTHERN IRELAND ACCESSNI

One thing this page won't do is tell you that you're fine. It has no such answer. What it gives you is the published wording, the name of the body that decides, and a written enquiry you can send them today.

Common questions

Can I apply for my own enhanced DBS check?

Since 21 January 2026, yes, if your role is eligible, you are paid for the work, and you're self-employed or a personal employee. The DBS puts it plainly: "It is down to the self-employed person or personal employee to apply for their own Enhanced DBS check via a DBS Umbrella Body." You can't ask a parent to do it for you, and they can't do it even if they want to.

Do private tutors need a DBS check?

The law doesn't require one. The DBS says so in its own guidance for registered bodies: "These laws only provide eligibility for DBS checks, they do not make them a requirement." Two of the free pages we read say the opposite. What's true is that eligibility follows the activity and its statutory conditions, and parents may still ask.

Does a DBS check have an expiry date?

No. GOV.UK is unambiguous: "A DBS check has no official expiry date. Any information included will be accurate at the time the check was carried out. It's up to you to decide when a new check is needed." A parent or an agency can still decide a four-year-old certificate isn't recent enough for them. That's their call, not a rule.

Do I need a DBS to teach adults?

The tests this page carries are the ones for work with children. For work with adults there's a separate set of eligibility guidance, and a different workforce on the application form. Anyone can request a basic check for themselves, which shows unspent convictions and conditional cautions. Beyond that, ask the body that decides.

Do I need a PVG to work with children in Scotland?

If the role is a regulated role, membership isn't optional. mygov.scot: "It's a legal requirement to join the PVG scheme if you're going to do a regulated role." For each type of regulated role, the five-year period begins when you join or renew. If you already had lifetime membership, the first five-year period begins when the Scottish Ministers give you written notice. Apply to renew before expiry; if that application is still pending at expiry, your participation continues until it is determined. Monitoring continues while you are in the scheme. Their own tool is the published way to check whether your role counts.

Do I need a new PVG for every job?

Not necessarily. Disclosure Scotland: "If your role changes, but you're still working for the same organisation and with the same vulnerable group, you do not need to do another application." A new employer may ask you to complete one so they can see an updated disclosure. Moving to a different vulnerable group does need an update.

What check do I need for driving instruction?

Registering as an approved driving instructor has its own criminal record check, arranged through DVSA, and it doesn't carry over from anything you already hold: "You cannot use one you have already - you must get a new one." Northern Ireland runs a separate service. Nothing published says whether that registration check also answers another requesting body's purpose, so ask DVSA or DVA, and the disclosure body for your nation.

Can I use the DBS Update Service if I'm self-employed?

That's exactly who the DBS suggests it for: "Joining the Update Service enables self-employed professionals with multiple clients to efficiently demonstrate that their DBS certificate remains up to date." Timing matters. If you join while the application is in progress, DBS must receive the application within 28 days of you joining the Update Service. If the certificate has already been issued, register with its number within 30 calendar days of issue; the issue date is day one.

What is an umbrella body?

"An Umbrella Body is an organisation that has registered with DBS to process DBS check applications." They're the route a self-employed person uses, and GOV.UK publishes a search with a filter for the ones that handle self-employed applicants. AccessNI publishes its own list. We don't name any of them, because naming one is an endorsement and we haven't checked any of them.

What changed in January 2026, and what changed in September?

Two separate things, and they're often muddled. From 21 January 2026, a self-employed person or personal employee in DBS territory can obtain an Enhanced or Enhanced with Barred List(s) check on themselves if the role is eligible and they are paid for the work. Sections 139 and 140 of the Crime and Policing Act 2026 remove the supervision exemption from the definition of regulated activity in England, Wales and Northern Ireland from 1 September 2026. This page checks current source state separately for each nation rather than relying on the calendar alone. Neither is an update to a barred list.

Four nations, three schemes, one question

A guitar teacher who moves from Carlisle to Gretna crosses a scheme boundary on the way. Same pupils, same lessons. What changes is the body that holds the check, the application they fill in, and the vocabulary they are expected to use. DBS checked is not the right scheme label in Inverness or Omagh, and a page that uses it everywhere is not writing to you.

The harder half is the second question. Until 21 January 2026, the DBS route for a standard or enhanced check was built around an employer making a suitability decision, and a teacher paid directly by a parent did not have one. That changed in England and Wales on that date: since then, a self-employed person or personal employee who is paid for eligible work may apply for their own Enhanced or Enhanced with Barred List(s) DBS check through an Umbrella Body. Scotland already allowed this exception: "You cannot apply on your own unless you're a personal assistant, self-employed or work for an individual."

So a level on its own is not much of an answer. You also need to know who is allowed to ask for it where you teach, and which questions your own case still leaves open. This page gives you all three, and a printable record of having asked.

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This question comes back: a new agency form, a hall that wants something on file, a move across a border. Bookmark the page, or print the record and keep it with your insurance certificate, so next time you start from what you already asked.

Where this question comes up most: Mathematics Lessons, Piano Instructors, Guitar Classes, Swim Lessons, Martial Arts Classes, Dance Lessons, Driver Training Schools and Personal Fitness Trainers and Gyms. Or browse a nation: England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland.

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