The DBS Update Service Isn't Truly Live?! Why We Shouldn't Panic, and Why the DBS Must Do Better
You might have seen in the news in October 2026 that online status checks through the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Update Service are not live at all - in fact some areas are only updated every 9 months.
What's actually happening?
Criminal convictions and statutory barred lists are checked weekly - great. BUT the bit that's made the news is that local police intelligence - including active allegations, arrest and on-going investigations - only gets reviewed and updated roughly once every 9 months.
For nursery management teams, headteachers and nursery cover agencies like us at Nexter, that 9 month gap is an obvious concern. An applicant or active member of the staff team could be under investigation when checked but still return a clean status 6 months in to an investigation.
Let's be clear - the DBS and Home office needs to do better - the technical integration between local police forces and the Update Service need an overhaul. There's no stakeholder in our industry that would take that long to flag an issue. In fact we'd be breaking our statutory duties if we failed to notify relevant authorities. Yet the service at the core of it all is pedestrian in its duties.
But let's not panic.
Safeguarding needs a holistic approach. A DBS check was never intended to be the silver bullet that acts as the industry's single line of defence.
Here's how Nexter approaches Safer Recruitment:
- Face to face recorded video interviews with sight seen documents.
- All staff are live on the Update Service and we check monthly.
- We share DBS info with clients and encourage checks at the start of every shift.
- Transcripts are recorded and second checked for safeguarding issues by our AI service.
- CV gap checking - we actively discuss and notes reasons for leaving roles and gaps in work.
- We take at least 2 references and check whether there are safeguarding concerns.
- All candidates self declare any police contact or investigations and allegations.
- Feedback is taken regularly from our nursery clients.
- We offer regular training updates to our nursery staff team.
The DBS Update service needs to do better but it is one just tool in our process.
If you'd like to work with a nursery cover agency that takes Safeguarding seriously give us a call:
- London = 02033376363
- Yorkshire = 01133280668
Check out our other nursery news here.
Check out our nursery jobs in Yorkshire here.
Check out our nursery jobs in London here.
