TempAllyDBS checks trip up a lot of agencies, not because the rules are hard, but because there are three different levels and it's easy to assume the wrong one is enough. If you've ever had a client ask "is this candidate's DBS okay for this role?" and had a moment of doubt, this one's for you.
The three levels, and when each applies
A Basic check just shows unspent convictions. Pretty much anyone can request one, and it's fine for roles with no particular safeguarding element, general warehouse or hospitality work, for example.
A Standard check adds spent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings, and it's for roles with a bit more responsibility or trust, security work is a common example. A candidate needs to be doing a role that's legally eligible for it, you can't just request a Standard check because a client would prefer one.
An Enhanced check is the one most education and healthcare placements need. It includes everything in a Standard check plus relevant local police information, and for roles working with children or vulnerable adults, it can include a barred list check too. This is the one agencies get caught out on most often, because a barred list check has to be explicitly requested, it doesn't happen automatically just because the role involves children.
Matching the check to the role, every time
The mistake we see most is an agency running the same level of DBS check across a whole pool of candidates for convenience, rather than checking what the specific role actually requires. It feels efficient, but it either leaves you under-covered for higher risk roles, or you're paying for and waiting on Enhanced checks for roles that never needed them.
It's worth building a simple mapping of role type to required check level, and sticking to it consistently. If you're not sure what a client's role actually requires, it's always worth asking rather than guessing, since getting this wrong on a school or care placement is a genuinely serious compliance gap.
Renewals and the three year question
There's a common myth that DBS checks expire after three years. They don't, a DBS certificate itself never expires. What matters is whether the information on it is still current, and most agencies choose to recheck every one to three years as good practice, especially for roles involving children or vulnerable adults.
The better approach, if a candidate is registered with the DBS Update Service, is you can check their status online instantly rather than waiting weeks for a fresh certificate. It's worth encouraging every candidate to sign up when they first apply, it saves everyone time later.
Keeping track without losing your mind
Once you've got more than a handful of candidates on your books, tracking DBS levels and check dates in a spreadsheet gets unmanageable fast. What you really want is a candidate profile that shows the check level, the date it was done, and whether they're on the Update Service, with a reminder that fires well before you'd want to recheck, not after.
That's how we've built it into TempAlly. Each candidate's compliance status is visible at a glance, and if a check needs revisiting, you'll see it before it becomes a problem on a booking rather than after a client's already asked.
If you'd like a walkthrough of how it works, book a demo and we'll show you.
