Changes to regulated activity

Have you seen that the rules on regulated activity with children in England have changed? So until now, if someone taught, trained, instructed, cared for or supervised children, but they themselves were unpaid and supervised by another person, they were not classed as being in regulated activity.

So this supervision exemption meant that they sat outside that category and outside the requirement for the enhanced DBS check.

But from the 1st of September 2026, that's changed.

So if a person teaches, trains, instructs, cares for or supervises children often enough or overnight, they are now in regulated activity, even if someone else is supervising them.

So they will need an enhanced DBS check regardless of that supervision arrangement.

And this change sits within the Crime and Policing Act 2026 and it updates the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006.

So supervision has always assumed a level of oversight that in reality isn't always consistent.

A supervised volunteer can still find themselves alone with a child even briefly.

An overnight setting can still leave a supervised worker in sole charge for periods of the night.

And the exemption relied on an assumption of constant reliable oversight that practice doesn't always bear out.

And it has importance not only for schools, but the guidance applies to local authority maintained schools, sixth form, further education colleges.

And it's since been clarified to also cover childcare providers.

So if your organisation works with children in education, early years, sport, faith settings, or the voluntary sector, This is worth checking against your own safer recruitment processes now, rather than in a few months time.

What about us in reviews? There is a pattern that we see.

A role might be assumed to be low risk because someone else was technically supervising and a volunteer who was always with someone else, a trainee who was never left alone with the children and These are the assumptions that we need to be asking questions about.

And this closes a gap in our safeguarding frameworks that's existed for a long time.

So do you know which roles in your organisation were previously exempt under the supervision role and how they've now moved into regulated activity? That's the question for you, because from the 1st of September, that is no longer a grey area.