Self-employed DBS check statistics 2026

Who is actually using the new self-employed Enhanced DBS route? Application data from the first four months.

On 21 January 2026, self-employed people in England and Wales became able to apply for an enhanced DBS check without an employer for the first time. Because the route is so new, there is no public data on who is using it. We run a registered Umbrella Body platform built for self-employed applicants, so we have that data. This page shares what we are seeing, updated monthly.

Journalists, researchers and bloggers are welcome to use any figure on this page with a link to it as the source.

Key findings

• +243%Monthly applications more than tripled between March and May 2026, an average of 85% growth each month.
• 118Distinct job titles in the first four months. Almost two thirds appeared only once or twice.
• 31%Health and wellbeing professionals are the largest group, ahead of education and tutoring at 25%.
• 78%Of applications are for roles working with children. 26% work with both children and vulnerable adults.
• 1 in 8The single most common applicant is a private tutor.
• 12%The third-largest sector is one few people predicted: contractors working on school and care sites.

Demand is growing fast

Applications doubled in March, more than doubled again in April, and grew another 62% in May. June is tracking at a similar level to May.

Some of this is a new platform finding its audience. But the shape of the growth suggests something else is going on too: most self-employed workers still don't know this route exists. Awareness is spreading person to person, through tutoring forums, carer networks and local authority direct payments teams, and each month it reaches a group that had previously been told "you can't get an Enhanced check without an employer."

Who is applying

Health and wellbeing professionals are the largest group at 31%: counsellors, psychotherapists, dentists, pharmacists, physiotherapists and dozens of smaller professions. This surprised us. The public conversation about the law change focused almost entirely on tutors and carers, but self-employed health practitioners had exactly the same problem and less attention.

Education and tutoring is second at 25%, which matches expectations. Tutors alone are 13.3% of all applications, the single most common role.

The third-largest group is contractors on school and care sites at 12%. These are painters, grounds staff and maintenance trades who need a check to work where children or vulnerable adults are present. Nobody mentioned them in the coverage of the law change. They turned up anyway.

The long tail is the real story

118 distinct job titles applied in the first four months, and 65% of them appeared only once or twice. Among them: an end-of-life doula, a BSL interpreter, an adaptive surf practitioner, a puppetry workshop facilitator and an orthopaedic surgeon.

This is what the January 2026 change actually did. The headline professions always had workarounds, such as agencies willing to sponsor a check. The long tail had nothing. A self-employed end-of-life doula had no employer, no agency and no route to an Enhanced check at all.

Who applicants work with

78% of applications are for roles working with children, including the 26% who work with both children and vulnerable adults. Roles working solely with vulnerable adults are 11%.

Worth sitting with for a moment: before 21 January 2026, the majority of these applicants, people working unsupervised with children, had no way to obtain the level of check that would reveal whether they were barred from that work.

Methodology

Last updated: 10 June 2026. Next update: July 2026.