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. This will apply if they do the work often enough, or overnight.
Regulated activity is work that a barred person must not do. It is against the law for:
- a barred person to engage in regulated activity;
- someone to allow a barred person to do regulated activity
This change only impacts regulated activity with children. No change is being made to the definition of regulated activity with adults.
Who this affects
This change affects any organisation with paid staff or volunteers who teach, train, instruct, care for, or supervise children. It affects people who were not in regulated activity with children specifically because someone else carrying out regulated activity with children supervised them to a sufficient level. This includes, but is not restricted to circumstances involving:
- people who volunteer in schools, such as reading helpers who are supervised by a teacher
- people who coach children’s sports clubs, such as assistant coaches who are supervised by a head coach
- people who work or volunteer with children in outdoor activity centres, youth groups, charities or community groups, and are supervised by someone else who is in regulated activity with children
What is changing
Before 1 September 2026, people who teach, train, instruct, care for or supervise children often enough are not in regulated activity with children if someone else who is in regulated activity supervises them sufficiently. This means an organisation can ask for an Enhanced DBS check in the child workforce, but there is no access to a Children’s Barred List check for that supervised role.
From 1 September 2026, this supervision rule will no longer apply. If a person teaches, trains, instructs, cares for or supervises children often enough, or overnight, they will be in regulated activity with children even if someone else supervises them. This means an organisation will be able to ask for an Enhanced DBS check in the child workforce with a Children’s Barred List check.
The work is done often enough, or overnight, if it occurs:
- on more than 3 days in any 30-day period
- once overnight, between 2am and 6am
What organisations should do now
Organisations should get ready before the change starts. They should:
- identify roles where people teach, train, instruct, care for, or supervise children and are currently supervised by someone else in regulated activity
- check if the activity is done often enough or overnight
- check if the person’s current DBS certificate included a Children’s Barred List check
- decide if a new Enhanced DBS check with Children’s Barred List information is needed in line with sector specific guidance
- update recruitment, volunteering and safeguarding steps so they include the change from 1 September 2026
- If a person’s role changes, or the way they do the role changes, organisations should check DBS eligibility again.