Childcare Angels

Police checks (or CRB checks) are carried out by the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB), an agency of the Home Office to help organisations make more informed decisions when recruiting people to work with children and vulnerable people.

A CRB check can provide access to a range of information, such as information:

• held on the Police National Computer (PNC), including Convictions, Cautions, Reprimands and Warnings in England and Wales, and most of the relevant convictions in Scotland and Northern Ireland may also be included;
• held by local police forces and other agencies, relating to relevant non-conviction information; from the government’s Protection of Children Act List (PoCA), where applicable; 
• from the government’s Protection of Vulnerable Adults List (PoVA), where applicable; and 
• held by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) under Section 142 of the Education Act 2002 (formerly known as List 99), where applicable.

The CRB does not check whether an applicant is permitted to work within the UK. The employer has liability for ensuring that the person they intend to employ can work in the UK.

Levels of CRB Check

The CRB offers two types of check: the standard and the enhanced. 

These checks cannot be obtained by members of the public directly but are only available to organisations and only for those professions, offices, employments, work and occupations listed in the Exceptions Order to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

Standard CRB check

Standard CRB checks are primarily for posts that involve working with children or vulnerable adults. They contain information about:

• convictions
• cautions
• reprimands
• warnings

This information is held in England and Wales on the Police National Computer, and most of the relevant convictions in Scotland and Northern Ireland may also be included.

Enhanced CRB Check

Enhanced checks are for posts involving a far greater degree of contact with children or vulnerable adults.

In general, the type of work will involve regularly caring for, supervising, training or being in sole charge of such people, e.g. a childcare provider, a teacher, scout or guide leader.

Enhanced checks contain the same information as Standard checks but with the addition of any locally held police force information considered relevant to the job role, by Chief Police Officer(s).

Your childcare provider can have either of the two police checks, and may show you a certificate breaking down what is on their file.

Parents who employ a nanny/au pair/babysitter directly cannot apply for a CRB check on applicants – you need to go through an agency (the CRB has a database of organisations you can contact to send the CRB off for you). However, if an agency supplies the nanny/au pair/babysitter, the agency is entitled to carry out a CRB check.

It is worth pointing out that a CRB check is valid for up to a year. A crucial point, however, is that a year is a long time and so the CRB only tells you what your childcare provider has or hadn’t done up to the date on the disclosure itself. Therefore, even if your potential childcare provider has a CRB, if you have any doubts or concerns, do not employ them!