Vetting a private tutor isn't the same as recruiting a teacher into a school, where statutory safeguarding checks are mandatory. Private engagements between a family and a self-employed tutor are largely unregulated, so the due-diligence sits with the parent. The good news is that none of it is hard, and a well-prepared tutor will expect you to ask.
This page is a working checklist. For the certificate-side detail, see Running your own DBS check; for wording you can copy into a message, see Questions to ask a tutor.
1. Confirm identity
The first thing to establish is that the person on the profile is the person who'll turn up to lessons. On Tutorperch, every published tutor passes an identity check before the profile goes live, a one-off photo-ID-plus-selfie verification. That's a baseline, and other platforms vary. Wherever you found the tutor, before the first lesson:
Have a video call. A short conversation tells you whether the photo, the voice and the manner all match
Check the name is consistent across their profile, their messages, their email signature and any documents they show you.
If something feels off, a photo that looks like stock imagery, a name that changes between channels, or evasiveness about a video call, slow down. See red flags when hiring a tutor for the longer list.
2. DBS: what to ask for and how to read it
The Disclosure and Barring Service runs criminal-record checks for England and Wales. Scotland uses Disclosure Scotland and Northern Ireland uses AccessNI. For tutoring under-18s on a regular, unsupervised basis, the right check is an Enhanced DBS with the children's barred list, the same level a school employee would hold. The eligibility criteria sit at gov.uk's DBS check guidance.
A few things parents commonly get wrong:
An Enhanced DBS doesn't certify "this person is safe with children". It evidences a point-in-time records check, and anything that happened after the issue date won't be on it.
The certificate belongs to the tutor, not the parent. Ask to see it; don't expect to keep a copy.
The DBS Update Service (a £16/year subscription the tutor can join) lets you run a free online status check that confirms whether anything has been added since the certificate was issued. The tutor gives you their certificate number and date of birth, and you check it at gov.uk's Update Service status-check page with their consent. It does not tell you what was on the certificate at the point of issue.
From 21 January 2026, self-employed people in the UK can apply for an Enhanced DBS check for themselves through an umbrella body. Before that, self-employed tutors could only get a Basic check, which doesn't cover the barred lists. If a tutor holds a pre-2026 Basic-only certificate, ask whether they've refreshed under the new route. For the full walk-through, see Run your own DBS check.
3. Verify qualifications, don't just take them on trust
Tutorperch helps parents make more informed choices by checking key tutor credentials before they are displayed on profiles. Tutors can upload evidence of qualifications, and Tutorperch verifies documents such as teaching qualifications, degrees and relevant certificates where applicable.
However, no platform can guarantee that every claim a tutor makes about their experience, teaching style or results will always be accurate. Tutoring is full of people whose claimed qualifications are accurate, alongside a smaller number whose claims are inflated. Ask for documentary evidence and check what you can.
QTS (Qualified Teacher Status). England has a public employer service, Check a teacher's record on gov.uk, which confirms QTS, induction status and any sanctions. You'll need the tutor's full name and date of birth and an account on the service. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own teaching councils.
Degrees. Ask for the awarding institution and year. The Higher Education Degree Datacheck (HEDD) is the official route for verifying UK degrees, but it costs around £14 per check; the parent-friendly version is to ask the tutor to show the original certificate or transcript on a video call.
Subject claims. A maths tutor who lists "GCSE Maths grade 9" is making a verifiable claim; "tutor at a top London school" isn't. Lean on the verifiable ones.
Music and language grades. The awarding bodies issue certificates carrying a reference number: ABRSM, Trinity College London, Rockschool and LCM for music, Cambridge English and the equivalent national institutes for languages. If the tutor lists a grade, ask to see it.
4. Take references
Two references is the working norm. Tutorperch checks references of all tutors before they are live on the website to help verify a tutor's professional background and experience. References provide additional reassurance about a tutor's character and suitability to be a tutor, but they are one part of the overall picture rather than a guarantee of teaching quality or suitability. Ask for parents of previous tutees rather than other tutors. Phone or video-call rather than email if you can: written references are easy to fabricate, and awkward conversations less so.
Useful questions for a reference: how long did your child work with them, and on what subject and level? Did the tutor turn up, and on time? Did your child make progress? Was the cancellation and payment side handled professionally? Would you book them again?
5. Run a trial session
A paid trial of 30 to 60 minutes is common. Most tutors offer it, some discount it, but there is no expectation for a tutor to offer one or to work for free.
A trial does a few things:
Lets you and your child meet the tutor and check the chemistry is right. A tutor who's well-qualified on paper but doesn't connect with your child won't help.
Surfaces communication issues. Did the tutor send joining instructions? Did they prepare? Did they ask anything about your child first?
Sets the tone for what a normal lesson looks like. Sit in on the first one, online or in person; see online tutoring safety for what supervision looks like.
Often the first meeting may be a short video or phone call to discuss needs and arrangements in depth before starting a sequence of lessons.
6. Pay attention in the first few sessions
Vetting doesn't stop after the trial. The first three to five lessons are when you'll see whether the tutor's claims about teaching style, lesson structure and homework hold up. Things to notice, without reading too much into any single instance:
Are lessons starting and ending on time, or running long?
Does your child show their work? Is there homework, and is it pitched right?
After the lesson, is your child relaxed or unusually quiet? Withdrawal from family conversation about lessons is worth a gentle ask.
Are communications as expected or do you need to work out a better system before continuing?
For the longer list of warning signs, see red flags when hiring a tutor. For what to do if something has already gone wrong, see what to do if a tutor acts inappropriately.
7. Where Tutorperch fits
Every tutor on Tutorperch passes an identity check and 2 references are submitted before their profile is published. Tutors who hold an Enhanced DBS can submit it for our team to verify. We hold the certificate number, name, DOB, issue date and the clear or not-clear status, and re-verify on a three-year cycle. The certificate image is purged once we've made the verification decision; see our privacy notice for retention detail. Tutees who pay the £9.99 finder's fee have decided they want to share contact details with one specific tutor, and that unlock model is what funds the verification work. None of it replaces the steps on this page. It gives you a stronger starting point.