DBS checks for nursery staff — 2026 requirements

A DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check is one of the most fundamental safeguarding requirements for anyone working with children. Get this wrong — whether by having an incomplete check, a lapsed process, or a misunderstood requirement — and it becomes a safeguarding failure that can affect your Ofsted grade regardless of how well everything else is running.

Who must have a DBS check

Every person who works in a regulated activity with children must have an enhanced DBS check with barred list check. In a nursery context, this means every member of staff — qualified practitioners, room leaders, nursery nurses, kitchen staff who interact with children, and the owner or manager. It also includes regular volunteers, students on placement, and any individual who regularly comes into unsupervised contact with children.

Contractors who come on site (maintenance, cleaners) and who are always supervised by a DBS-checked member of staff do not need their own checks, but you must ensure they are never left alone with children.

What level of check is required

Nurseries require an enhanced DBS check with barred list check (sometimes called an enhanced check with children's barred list). This is the highest level of check and covers:

• All convictions, cautions, reprimands, and warnings held on the Police National Computer
• Any information held locally by police that is considered relevant
• Whether the person is on the Children's Barred List (which means they are legally prohibited from working with children)

A standard DBS check — which does not include the barred list — is not sufficient for nursery work. Make sure your HR process specifies the correct check type.

Before starting work — no exceptions

The DBS check must be completed before a member of staff starts working with children. Under the EYFS, this is non-negotiable. There is a provision for a risk assessment to allow someone to start work while awaiting a check result, but this is a narrow exception that requires careful management — the individual must be supervised at all times and must never be left alone with children. Use this provision carefully and document everything. If Ofsted finds a member of staff working with children without a completed DBS, the result will be serious.

Renewal — there is no fixed legal requirement, but there is a best practice

Unlike some certifications, there is no statutory requirement to renew a DBS check on a fixed cycle. A check completed five years ago is technically still valid. However, Ofsted expects nurseries to have a process for identifying changes in a staff member's circumstances — and a five-year-old check that has never been reviewed is a risk.

The most practical solution is the DBS Update Service. For £13 per person per year (as of 2026), staff can register their certificate with the Update Service. You can then carry out an online status check at any time — for free — to see whether any new information has emerged since the original check. This is far cheaper than repeating full checks and gives continuous rather than point-in-time assurance.

If you're not using the Update Service, a policy of rechecking every three years is a defensible approach that most nurseries adopt.

The single central record

You must maintain a single central record (SCR) of all recruitment and vetting checks for every person working at your nursery. For DBS, this means recording the certificate number, date of issue, level of check, and date you verified it. The SCR must be available immediately during an Ofsted inspection. An incomplete SCR — missing certificate numbers, undated verifications, or missing staff members — is one of the most common reasons nurseries receive post-inspection requirements.

Review your SCR monthly. Add every new starter on or before their first day. It is much easier to keep the SCR current than to reconstruct it under pressure the night before an inspection.

Overseas staff

Staff who have lived or worked abroad require additional checks, as the UK DBS system only covers UK criminal records. You must obtain a Certificate of Good Conduct (or equivalent) from each country in which they lived for 12 months or more in the past ten years. This is the responsibility of the employer to arrange, not the employee.