DBS Regulated activity update
From 1 September 2026, the law about regulated activity with children is changing. The current rule about the supervision of paid staff and volunteers carrying out specific activities with children will be removed from the legal definition.
This means some people will be in regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026 when they were not before, because they were sufficiently supervised by someone else.
If you have staff or volunteers who do the following work often enough with children: delivering teaching, training, caring for or supervising them, then this may apply to them.
Examples include youth work, sports coaching, arts tutoring, outdoor activities.
The change will apply if they do the work often enough (3 times or more in 30 days), or overnight (between the hours of 2am and 6am). Where the frequency or overnight condition is met, this role is regulated activity regardless of any level of supervision (oversight) in place and requires the barring list check (children’s workforce). This can be applied for via a new enhanced DBS check, at no more than the same cost (£49.50 for paid workers, free for volunteers (as per the definition) plus your provider’s admin fee).
Further information about the legislative changes can be found on GOV.UK: Change to the definition of regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026 – GOV.UK. In addition, guidance on the DBS website will be updated from 1st September 2026 to reflect these changes.
We would also like to highlight the myth busting section which could answer some of those frequently asked questions – https://www.gov.uk/government/
If you have any other questions you can contact us or speak to the outreach officer for Wales at DBS owain.rowlands@dbs.gov.uk