Extracurricular Activities: Vetting

The government is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults, including those attending extracurricular activities. In most cases, those who deliver such activities, particularly those regularly undertaking unsupervised teaching, training, instruction, or care of children would be considered to be working in regulated activity. These staff would therefore be eligible for an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) criminal record check, including a check of the children’s barred list; and it is a criminal offence for a barred individual to engage in, or to be knowingly employed in, such activity. Our safeguarding guidance for out-of-school setting providers is clear that such checks should be carried out where eligibility criteria are met.

The government recognises the importance of ensuring the definition of regulated activity remains effective. We have therefore introduced changes to enable self‑employed individuals and those directly employed by families to obtain enhanced DBS checks with a relevant barred list check where they work closely with children or vulnerable adults. We are also removing the supervision exemption from the definition of regulated activity so that those working frequently with children, whether supervised or not, are in scope.

Separate to this, we launched a Call for Evidence last year to better understand current safeguarding practice in the out-of-school settings sector, including in relation to DBS checks, and to invite views on how standards might be strengthened. We have been analysing responses and are continuing to engage with safeguarding partners, sector representatives, and parents to help inform our next steps, and will publish our response in due course.