DBS Check Tracking for Volunteers: A Complete Guide

DBS check tracking for volunteers involves systematically recording, monitoring, and managing Disclosure and Barring Service checks across your volunteer workforce to ensure ongoing safeguarding compliance — and tools like Plinth automate this process with built-in tracking, expiry alerts, and compliance dashboards. This complete guide covers everything UK charities need to know about DBS checks for volunteers.

TL;DR: Charities working with children or vulnerable adults must conduct appropriate DBS checks on volunteers in regulated activity. Enhanced DBS checks are free for volunteers but take approximately 14 days to process. While DBS certificates do not technically expire, most organisations re-check every three years. Managing this manually across hundreds of volunteers creates serious compliance risks — Plinth's DBS tracking feature automates the process with status tracking, expiry alerts, and organisation-wide compliance dashboards.

Understanding DBS Checks

What Is a DBS Check?

A DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check is a background check that helps organisations make safer recruitment decisions by revealing an individual's criminal record history. The DBS replaced the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA) in 2012.

The Disclosure and Barring Service processed over 5.8 million applications in 2023-24, making it one of the UK's largest background checking operations. For charities, DBS checks are a fundamental part of safeguarding — but they are only one element of a comprehensive safer recruitment process.

Types of DBS Checks

There are four levels of DBS check, each revealing progressively more information:

Key point for charities: Standard, Enhanced, and Enhanced with Barred List checks are free for volunteer positions. This applies to any position where the person is not receiving payment (beyond reasonable expenses). This exemption saves charities significant costs — a large volunteer programme with 500 volunteers would pay £19,000 for Enhanced checks if they were not exempt.

Which Check Level Do You Need?

The level of check required depends on the role, not the individual. The key factors are:

Basic check: Suitable for roles with no direct access to children or vulnerable adults (e.g., office-based admin volunteers, fundraising volunteers).

Enhanced check: Required for roles involving regular contact with children or vulnerable adults but not in regulated activity (e.g., supervised youth group helpers, reception volunteers at a care home).

Enhanced with Barred List check: Required for roles in regulated activity — unsupervised work with children or vulnerable adults, including teaching, training, caring, supervising, or providing personal care. This is the most common check level for charity volunteers working directly with beneficiaries.

The Charity Commission and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (as amended by the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012) set out the legal framework. Getting this wrong — either by conducting unnecessary checks or failing to conduct required checks — has serious implications.

Why Tracking Matters

The Compliance Challenge

DBS certificates are issued at a point in time and do not automatically update if someone's circumstances change. This creates an ongoing compliance challenge:

No formal expiry: DBS certificates do not technically expire. However, they represent a snapshot of an individual's record at the time of the check. Most organisations adopt a policy of re-checking every one to three years to ensure records remain current. The NSPCC recommends re-checking at least every three years.

Volume complexity: A charity with 200 volunteers, each requiring Enhanced DBS checks on a three-year cycle, needs to process approximately 67 checks per year — more than one per week. At scale, this becomes a significant administrative operation. Camden Council, which uses Plinth to manage 2,500 volunteers across 45 charities, would face an unmanageable compliance burden without automated tracking.

Multiple organisations: Volunteers who work across multiple organisations (increasingly common in collaborative settings like volunteer centres) may need checks verified by each organisation. Plinth's multi-organisation features simplify this by enabling shared visibility of compliance status.

Regulatory scrutiny: The Charity Commission has identified poor safeguarding practices, including inadequate DBS checking, as a significant concern. Serious case reviews frequently cite gaps in background checking as contributing factors.

The Risks of Poor Tracking

Failing to maintain adequate DBS tracking creates several serious risks:

Safeguarding risk: The most serious consequence — a volunteer with an undisclosed conviction or barring may be working with vulnerable people without appropriate checks.

Legal risk: Organisations that fail to conduct required checks may be in breach of the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 and could face regulatory action from the Charity Commission.

Reputational risk: A safeguarding failure linked to inadequate background checking can devastate a charity's reputation and ability to attract volunteers, supporters, and funding.

Insurance risk: Many insurers require evidence of appropriate DBS checking as a condition of cover. Gaps in compliance could invalidate your organisation's insurance.

How to Track DBS Checks Effectively

Option 1: Spreadsheet Tracking (Small Programmes)

For very small volunteer programmes (under 20 volunteers), a well-structured spreadsheet can provide basic tracking:

Essential columns: Volunteer name, role, check type required, check type completed, certificate number, date of issue, re-check due date, status (current/due/overdue).

Limitations: No automated alerts, no audit trail, no access controls, high risk of human error, difficult to scale, and challenging to maintain when multiple staff are involved. See our guide on volunteer management software vs spreadsheets for a detailed comparison.

Option 2: Purpose-Built Software (Recommended)

For organisations managing more than 20 volunteers or those with complex compliance requirements, dedicated software is essential.

Plinth's DBS tracking provides:

Status tracking: Record the type of check, date completed, certificate number, and any relevant notes for each volunteer. See at a glance whether a volunteer's check is current, due for renewal, or overdue.

Expiry alerts: Automated notifications when DBS checks are approaching their renewal date, giving you time to initiate the re-checking process before the existing check lapses.

Compliance dashboards: Organisation-wide view of DBS compliance status, showing how many volunteers have current checks, how many are due, and how many are overdue. Essential for trustees and managers who need oversight without reviewing individual records.

Audit trails: Complete records of who updated DBS information and when, providing the evidence trail required for regulatory compliance and safeguarding reviews.

Multi-organisation visibility: For councils and volunteer centres managing volunteers across multiple organisations, Plinth provides shared compliance visibility — Volunteer Centre Kensington & Chelsea uses this to maintain oversight of DBS compliance across 3,000 volunteers and 163 organisations.

The DBS Update Service

The DBS Update Service is a subscription service that allows DBS certificates to be kept up to date. Volunteers can subscribe for free (paid workers pay £13/year).

How it works: When a volunteer subscribes to the Update Service, their DBS certificate can be checked online at any time by authorised organisations. If nothing has changed, the original certificate remains current. If new information exists, a new check must be applied for.

Benefits for charities:

• Eliminates the need for repeat applications if volunteers move between roles or organisations
• Enables instant online status checks
• Reduces administrative burden and processing delays
• Particularly valuable for volunteers who work across multiple organisations

Limitations:

• The volunteer must subscribe within 30 days of certificate issue
• Not all volunteers will subscribe (it is optional)
• The service confirms whether information is unchanged — it does not provide a new check
• You still need the original certificate number and the volunteer's consent to check

Recommendation: Encourage all new volunteers to subscribe to the Update Service at the point of their initial DBS check. Make it part of your standard onboarding process.

The DBS Process: Step by Step

Step 1: Determine the Required Check Level

Assess the volunteer role against the legal framework to determine whether a Basic, Standard, Enhanced, or Enhanced with Barred List check is required. When in doubt, consult the DBS eligibility guidance or seek legal advice. Conducting an unnecessarily high level of check is also problematic — it may breach the volunteer's privacy rights.

Step 2: Register as a Registered Body (or Use an Umbrella Body)

Organisations cannot apply for Standard or Enhanced DBS checks directly unless they are registered with the DBS. Most charities use an umbrella body (a registered organisation that processes applications on behalf of others) such as NCVO's DBS checking service, uCheck, or Personnel Checks.

Costs for umbrella body services typically include a per-check processing fee (ranging from £5-15) on top of the DBS fee itself. Remember that the DBS fee is waived for volunteer positions.

Step 3: Collect Application Information

The volunteer must complete a DBS application form providing personal details, address history (typically five years), and identity documents. Three forms of identification are required, including at least one from each group specified by the DBS.

Step 4: Verify Identity

An authorised person within your organisation (or your umbrella body) must verify the volunteer's identity documents in person. This is a critical safeguarding step — identity fraud in DBS applications, while rare, does occur.

Step 5: Submit and Wait

Once the application is submitted, the DBS processes it and contacts relevant police forces for Enhanced checks. The current average processing time is approximately 14 days, though this can vary. According to DBS performance data, approximately 80% of Enhanced checks are completed within 14 days, but complex cases involving multiple police force areas can take significantly longer.

Step 6: Review the Certificate

The certificate is sent directly to the volunteer, who should share it with your organisation. Review the information carefully and make a risk assessment if any disclosures are present. Having a conviction does not automatically disqualify someone from volunteering — you must make a fair, proportionate assessment of relevance.

Step 7: Record and Track

Record the check details in your tracking system — certificate number, date of issue, check type, and any relevant notes. Set a renewal reminder based on your organisation's re-checking policy. This is where Plinth's DBS tracking feature becomes invaluable, automating reminders and providing compliance oversight.

DBS Checks and the Law

Legal Requirements

Regulated activity: DBS checks with a barred list check are required for individuals engaging in regulated activity with children or vulnerable adults. Regulated activity includes unsupervised teaching, training, instructing, caring, supervising, or providing personal care on a regular basis.

It is an offence for a barred person to engage in regulated activity, and for an organisation to knowingly employ or allow a barred person to engage in regulated activity.

Supervised volunteers: Volunteers who are supervised at all times while working with vulnerable groups are not in regulated activity and therefore a barred list check is not required (though an Enhanced check may still be appropriate).

What About Existing Volunteers?

DBS checks are not retrospective in legislation — there is no legal requirement to re-check existing volunteers. However, best practice strongly recommends regular re-checking:

• The NSPCC recommends re-checking at least every three years
• Many local authorities require three-yearly checks for volunteers working in their services
• Charity Commission guidance encourages regular re-checking as part of safeguarding practice
• Insurers may require evidence of periodic re-checking

Portability

DBS certificates belong to the individual, and there is no legal obligation for organisations to accept a check carried out for another organisation. In practice, many charities will accept a recent check (typically within the last three months) if it is at the appropriate level, particularly if the volunteer is registered with the Update Service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are DBS checks free for volunteers?

Standard, Enhanced, and Enhanced with Barred List DBS checks are free for volunteers. Basic checks cost £18 regardless of whether the role is paid or voluntary. A volunteer is defined as someone who is not receiving any payment for their work (reasonable expenses do not count as payment). This fee exemption applies only where the role is genuinely voluntary.

How long does a DBS check take?

The average processing time is approximately 14 days. According to DBS performance data, around 80% of applications are completed within 14 days. However, Enhanced checks that require information from multiple police forces can take longer — occasionally several weeks. You can track application progress online using the DBS tracking service.

Do DBS checks expire?

DBS certificates do not have a formal expiry date. However, they represent a point-in-time snapshot and may become outdated. Most organisations re-check every one to three years. If the volunteer has subscribed to the DBS Update Service, you can check online at any time to confirm whether the certificate remains current.

Can a volunteer start before their DBS check is completed?

This depends on your organisation's policy and the nature of the role. For roles in regulated activity, the volunteer should not start until the check is complete. For other roles, many organisations allow volunteers to start under supervised conditions while the check is processed, with clear restrictions on unsupervised access to vulnerable people. Your safeguarding policy should set out your organisation's approach clearly.

What should I do if a DBS check reveals a conviction?

Having a conviction does not automatically disqualify someone from volunteering. You must make a fair, proportionate risk assessment considering the nature of the offence, its relevance to the role, how long ago it occurred, and any other relevant circumstances. The DBS filtering rules remove certain old and minor offences from certificates. Ensure you have a clear policy and that risk assessments are conducted by appropriately trained staff.

Can I check a volunteer's DBS status online?

Only if the volunteer has subscribed to the DBS Update Service and gives consent. The online check confirms whether the information on the original certificate remains current. If it has changed, you will need to apply for a new check. The Update Service is free for volunteers and can be subscribed to within 30 days of certificate issue.

Conclusion

DBS check tracking is a fundamental safeguarding responsibility for any charity working with children or vulnerable adults. It is not optional — it is a legal requirement and a moral obligation.

The essentials: Understand which check levels your roles require, process applications efficiently using an umbrella body, and maintain systematic tracking of all checks including renewal dates.

The technology: Manual tracking is feasible for very small programmes but becomes a serious compliance risk at scale. Plinth's built-in DBS tracking, with automated expiry alerts and compliance dashboards, ensures that no checks fall through the cracks — even across large, multi-organisation volunteer programmes.

The culture: DBS checks are one part of a broader safeguarding culture. They must be accompanied by thorough references, supervised probation, ongoing training, and a culture where concerns can be raised safely.

Ready to streamline your DBS tracking? Book a demo of Plinth to see how our compliance features protect your volunteers and the people they serve.

Recommended Next Pages

• The Complete Guide to Volunteer Management – Understand DBS tracking in the context of the full volunteer management lifecycle.

• Best Volunteer Management Software for UK Charities – Compare platforms with DBS tracking capabilities.

• Volunteer Management Software vs Spreadsheets – Why spreadsheets are inadequate for compliance tracking at scale.

• How to Recruit and Retain Volunteers – Streamline DBS processes to reduce onboarding delays and improve recruitment.

• How to Track Volunteer Hours and Demonstrate Impact – Complement compliance tracking with impact measurement.

• Volunteering Features on Plinth – Explore Plinth's DBS tracking and other volunteer management tools.

Last updated: February 2026

For more information about DBS check tracking and compliance, contact our team or schedule a demo.