Why Tutorperch needs to see your DBS certificate to grant the badge
Some tutors have asked why we can't use their DBS Update Service registration on its own to award a DBS badge. The short answer is that a status check tells us whether a certificate is still current, not what it says. The Update Service is therefore not an alternative to the original certificate. The two serve different purposes.
The key point is that the DBS Update Service does not show the contents of your DBS certificate. It allows an organisation to check whether the information on an existing Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate has changed. GOV.UK guidance states that, before carrying out an Update Service check, an organisation must have seen the applicant’s original DBS certificate, and states the Update Service should not be used in isolation. The DBS Update Service also suggests that you keep your DBS certificate.
What a DBS Update Service status check shows
We get one of these results. We never see any convictions, cautions or other details.
"This DBS certificate did not reveal any information and remains current…" means the certificate was blank when it was issued, and nothing new has come up since. We still need to see the certificate to verify its contents and the type and level of check.
"This DBS certificate remains current…" means the certificate did contain information when it was issued, but not what that information was.
"This DBS certificate is no longer current…" means new information has come up since it was issued, but not what it is.
"The details entered do not match those held on our system" means the details have been entered incorrectly or there is no registration
What a status check doesn't show
The result doesn't tell us the level of check (Standard or Enhanced), whether the Children's Barred List was checked, or which workforce the certificate covers. A clean Standard certificate from an office job, or an Enhanced certificate for adult care work, gives the same result as an Enhanced check with the Children's Barred List. Neither of the first two don't qualify for our badge.
For exampleImagine a tutor received a DBS certificate in 2024 which disclosed a previous conviction or caution. If that tutor subsequently joins the Update Service, a Tutorperch status check on its own would not show us the details of that conviction or caution. We therefore need to see the original certificate to establish what was actually disclosed. |
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A conviction or caution doesn't automatically rule you out. We assess it under our disclosure policy, which you can ask to see, and we'll talk to you before any decision against you because of it.
How the Update Service helps
Once we've seen your certificate, the Update Service lets us confirm it stays current without asking you to apply again. It checks for new convictions, cautions and barring information, including being added to a barred list. It also checks for new police information on Enhanced certificates every nine months.
Children's Barred List
The Children's Barred List is a list held by the Disclosure and Barring Service of people who are legally banned from regulated activity with children, which includes regularly teaching or tutoring them. Someone can be placed on it without having a criminal conviction, so it is checked separately from the rest of your DBS. It is only included if your Enhanced DBS was applied for with a Children's Barred List check, and your certificate will show this in its Children's Barred List section, either as checked with nothing recorded, or as not requested. The Update Service can't tell us this on its own. It only keeps checking the barred lists that were part of your original check, and a status check never says which ones those were. A certificate with a barred list check and one without show exactly the same "remains current" message. That's why we need to see your original certificate once. After that, the Update Service lets us confirm it stays current without you having to apply again. If your certificate shows the barred list check was not requested, you would need a new Enhanced DBS application that includes it, because the Update Service only works for the same level of check. If you're unsure which check you have, send us a message through Tutorperch and we'll help you work it out.
Our process
You provide your certificate and we check it against your verified identity. If it's on the Update Service, we then run a status check with your consent
Why we can't use the Update Service for child and adult workforce certificates
If your DBS certificate covers both the child and adult workforce, we can't legally run an Update Service status check on it. That's true even if you tutor adults as well as children on Tutorperch. This isn't our rule. It comes from the conditions GOV.UK sets for every status check, and schools, agencies and employers have to follow them too. We do accept them if they are within 3 year period, and the badge then lasts until three years after the certificate's issue date. A certificate that's already more than three years old can't be used.
We know this can be frustrating, especially if you've paid for the Update Service to avoid reapplying. Here's why it happens and what you can do.
What a child and adult workforce certificate is
Every Standard or Enhanced DBS certificate is issued for a workforce. GOV.UK lists three: child, adult and other. A certificate can show a single workforce, or "a combination of child and adult, but no other combination".
You'll usually have a combined certificate if you got it through a role that involved both children and adults, such as a school with adult learners, a care provider, or a sports or music organisation. A combined Enhanced certificate often includes both the Children's Barred List and the Adults' Barred List.
To see which you have, look at the Position applied for field. It will name the workforce, for example "Child Workforce" or "Child and Adult Workforce". Then look at the two barred list sections to see which lists were checked.
The GOV.UK rule
Before anyone sees a status check result, the Update Service asks them to confirm a set of conditions. Two of them decide this case:
"Does the DBS certificate only contain the exact workforce that you are entitled to know about, for the role you are recruiting for?"
If a barred list check is involved, that "the DBS certificate only contains the one(s) you are able to ask for e.g. Children's Barred List, Adults' Barred List, or both."
Tutoring children regularly is regulated activity with children. That entitles us to know about the child workforce and the Children's Barred List. A combined certificate also holds adult workforce information and, usually, an Adults' Barred List result. Unless we're entitled to those too, we can't answer "yes" to either condition.
The status check result wouldn't show us anything about the adult side anyway. That doesn't change the rule. The conditions are about what the certificate contains, not what the result displays.
What about tutoring adults?
Until 2012, teaching vulnerable adults counted as 'regulated activity', so it could qualify for an Adults' Barred List check. The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 changed that. The law now defines regulated activity with adults by the kind of help given, such as healthcare, personal care or help with money, not by who the adult is, and teaching was taken off the list. So tutoring any adult, however vulnerable, doesn't qualify for an Adults' Barred List check. That's why we can't run a status check on a certificate that includes one.
GOV.UK's own exampleThe DBS employer guide works through the same situation the other way round. Roger has an Enhanced certificate for the child and adult workforce, with both barred lists checked. He's offered a job in a care home for adults. The recruiting manager, Doris, wants to do a status check. She "realises that she can't do this, because she's not legally allowed to request a check of the Children's Barred List or see non-conviction information which relates to the child workforce." Instead, she asks Roger to make a new application for an Enhanced certificate in the adult workforce with an Adults' Barred List check. A tutor with a combined certificate is in Roger's position, just flipped. We can be entitled to the child side, but no tutoring role, whether with children or adults, entitles us to the Adults' Barred List. So the combined certificate can't be status checked. |
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What you can do
If you have a 'child and adult' workforce DBS certificate that is dated in the past 3 years then you can upload that and your badge will be granted until the 3 year window from certificate issue date is up.
Apply for a child workforce certificate. Since 21 January 2026, self-employed tutors can apply for an Enhanced DBS on themselves through a registered umbrella body. Ask for the child workforce, with a Children's Barred List check if you tutor often enough to qualify. That means teaching children on more than 3 days in any 30-day period.
Add it to the Update Service. You must join within 30 days of the certificate's issue date. Once you have, we can status check it and you won't need to reapply for tutoring.
Keep your combined certificate for other work. It's still valid for roles that need both workforces. You can add more than one certificate to your Update Service account.
If you only tutor adults, a child workforce certificate isn't relevant to you. Most adult tutoring isn't eligible for an Enhanced check, so the Update Service won't apply to it.
If you're not sure which workforce your certificate covers, send us a message through Tutorperch and we'll help you check.
Official guidance
Regulated activity with adults in England and Wales (GOV.UK)
Private individuals employing self-employed workers or personal employees (GOV.UK)
The law as it was in 2006, with teaching included: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/47/schedule/4/enacted
The 2012 change: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/9/section/66
The current list: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/47/schedule/4