Self-employed DBS check statistics 2026
August was our busiest month yet. Seven months of self-employed Enhanced DBS application data, from February to August 2026.Since 21st January 2026, eligible self-employed people in England and Wales have been able to apply for an Enhanced DBS check through a registered Umbrella Body without an employer applying on their behalf. We run a registered Umbrella Body platform for self-employed applicants. 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
- +70%New Enhanced DBS applications increased by 70% in August compared with July, reaching a new monthly high on our platform.
- +41%Completed checks rose by 41% month on month. August was our busiest month for completions too.
- 41%Education and tutoring accounted for 41% of August applications and 62% of the increase over July.
- 142Distinct job titles across the reporting period, including 68 represented in August alone.
- 86%Of applications involve work with children. A third involve work with both children and vulnerable adults.
- 70%Of distinct job titles appeared only once or twice, showing how widely demand is spread across smaller occupations.
August brought a summer high
August surprised us. During the school summer holidays, new Enhanced DBS applications rose by 70% compared with July and completed checks rose by 41%. Both reached their highest monthly level in our data.
Applications submitted to DBS also increased, by 37%. Growth therefore extended across applications created, submissions and completed checks. These are separate measures: a check completed in August may have started in an earlier month.
New application volume was more than double June's level and around seven and a half times March's, our first complete reporting month.
We expect a temporary dip in applications during the final week or two of September as some applicants wait for the government fee for an Enhanced DBS check to fall from £49.50 to £41 on 5th October 2026, followed by a stronger rise in sign-ups and registrations once the lower fee takes effect.
Who is applying
Education and tutoring was the largest sector in August, accounting for 41% of new applications compared with 26% in July. Applications from this sector rose by 165%, contributing 62% of the overall increase.
The rise was particularly strong among tutors and teachers. Applications recorded as Tutor increased by 159% and those recorded as Teacher by 188%. This could reflect preparation for the new academic year, although the data does not record why applicants chose August.
Across the full February to August period, health and wellbeing and education and tutoring are almost level, at 32% each. Together they account for nearly two-thirds of applications. Childcare and youth support contributes 11%, followed by social care and support at 10%.
Tutor remains the most common recorded title, representing 19% of applications across the reporting period, followed by Teacher at 11%. In August alone, their shares were 25% and 14%, together accounting for 39% of new applications.
The breadth of occupations keeps growing
The data now covers 142 distinct job titles, with 68 represented in August alone. Around 70% of titles appear only once or twice across the full reporting period.
August added titles such as piano teacher, medical interpreter, emergency medical technician and trainee play therapist. The wider data includes an end-of-life doula, an adaptive surf practitioner, an orthopaedic surgeon and a puppetry workshop facilitator.
These smaller occupations sit alongside the higher-volume teaching, health and care roles, showing the range of specialists using the platform.
Who applicants work with
Across the reporting period, 86% of applications involve work with children. This includes 52% relating to children only and 33% involving both children and vulnerable adults. A further 14% relate solely to work with vulnerable adults.
Overall, 48% involve work with vulnerable adults once the overlap is included. In August alone, 87% of applications involved children.
September’s update will be our first opportunity to look at demand following the removal of the supervision exemption on 1 September 2026, which makes some supervised roles eligible for Children’s Barred List checks for the first time.
Methodology
This update uses self-employed Enhanced DBS application records with a recorded job title created on self-employed-dbs.co.uk between 11 February and 31st August 2026, from an export taken on 11th September 2026. September activity is outside the reporting period. February is a partial month; March to August are complete months.
New applications are counted by their creation date, submissions by their submission date and completed checks by their completion date. Completions may relate to applications created in earlier months. These figures count application records, rather than unique people or account sign-ups. Earlier editions used new account registrations for the growth chart; this edition uses application records. Each growth series is indexed separately to March 2026 = 100, and all monthly comparisons in this edition use the same reporting dataset.
Sector, role and workforce percentages use application records created within the stated period as their base. Sector groupings are assigned from recorded job titles. Capitalisation, spacing and adult/child workforce suffixes are normalised when counting distinct job titles and ranking roles. Other differently worded titles remain separate. Whole-number percentages are rounded independently; charts show one decimal place where useful, so rounded figures may not sum exactly.
We publish percentages and growth rates rather than raw application volumes. We are one platform among several registered Umbrella Bodies, so these figures describe our application data rather than the whole market.
To cite this page: "Self-Employed DBS Statistics 2026, self-employed-dbs.co.uk" with a link. For press enquiries or the underlying percentages in table form, contact us via the support form.