The short answer
- Enhanced, with a barred list check, is the one that mattersA basic or standard certificate does not check the barred lists at all, so it cannot rule out the one thing you most need ruled out.
- Personal care for someone outside your family is regulated activityHelp with washing, dressing, toileting or eating, done for pay for someone who is not a relative, falls under the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006, and it is a criminal offence for a barred person to do it.
- Ask to see the certificate, and check five things on itThe level, the name and date of birth, both barred list sections, any conviction details, and that every page is there.
- A certificate is only current if it is checked againAsk whether the carer is on the DBS Update Service, so their status can be confirmed at any time rather than trusted from a piece of paper that could be years old.
PrimeCarers is an introductory service, not a care agency and not registered with the CQC. Every carer's identity, right to work and enhanced DBS are checked, and kept current on the Update Service, before their profile appears.
The right certificate
Three levels of DBS check, and only one is right for care
A carer can hold three different kinds of certificate, and only the wording at the top of the page tells them apart. Knowing what each one shows is the difference between a proper check and a piece of paper that looks official.
| What it shows | Who can get one | |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | Unspent convictions and cautions only. | Anyone can apply for their own, for £21.50 |
| Standard | Spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings. | Applied for through an employer or umbrella body |
| Enhanced, with a barred list check | Everything a standard check shows, plus information local police hold that is relevant to the role, and whether the person is on the DBS adults' barred list, children's barred list, or both. | The certificate a private carer should hold |
Basic
- What it shows
- Unspent convictions and cautions only.
- Who can get one
- Anyone can apply for their own, for £21.50
Standard
- What it shows
- Spent and unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands and warnings.
- Who can get one
- Applied for through an employer or umbrella body
Enhanced, with a barred list check
- What it shows
- Everything a standard check shows, plus information local police hold that is relevant to the role, and whether the person is on the DBS adults' barred list, children's barred list, or both.
- Who can get one
- The certificate a private carer should hold
Checked against gov.uk on 5 September 2026. A basic check costs £21.50 and anyone can apply for their own; standard and enhanced checks need an eligible role.
A basic certificate, the kind anyone can buy on themselves for £21.50, only shows unspent convictions. It says nothing about the barred lists, so a carer offering you one instead of an enhanced certificate has not been checked for the thing that matters most. If a carer's profile or a paper certificate does not say "Enhanced" in the first line, ask why before you go any further. Background checks on a private carer sets out where the DBS check sits alongside the other three checks that matter, an identity check, a right to work check and an interview. Checking a private carer has more on the wider interview and vetting steps to run through before you book anyone.
Why it matters legally
What makes this a legal question, and not only good practice
There is no single law that tells a family to demand a certificate before they let a carer in the door. What the law does say is which kind of work qualifies for the strongest check, and what happens if someone who should not be doing that work does it anyway.
Personal care tasks that count as regulated activity, if a family pays someone who is not a relative to do them
0 of 6 ticked
Family care is excluded from this definition on purpose, so a relative caring for their own mother or father is not carrying out regulated activity in the legal sense, whatever help they give. A carer found through PrimeCarers, an agency, or word of mouth, who is not a relative and is paid for personal care, is. Employing a private carer covers what else becomes your legal responsibility if you take a carer on directly rather than booking a self-employed one through a platform.
Two related legal questions tend to follow this one, and neither changes what an enhanced DBS check itself covers: whether a private carer needs a licence to do the work, and whether a self-employed carer has to be registered with the CQC. Both sit alongside the DBS check rather than replacing it.
Reading the certificate
What to check on the certificate itself
A genuine enhanced certificate follows a set layout. Five things on it are worth looking at before you decide anything, and none of them takes long.
1Enhanced Certificate
NOT REQUESTED
NONE FOUND
- 1
The level, at the top of page one
It should read "Enhanced Certificate". A Basic or Standard certificate is the wrong document for care work, whatever the carer meant to send you.
- 2
Name and date of birth
Match them against a passport or driving licence. Even a slightly different surname can mean records were missed against the wrong name.
- 3
The barred list sections
Two boxes, one for the children's list and one for the adults' list. For care of an adult relative, the adults' box should say nothing was found. The children's box may say the check was not requested, which only means that list was not relevant to the role, not a concern. A hit in the box that should have been checked, or nothing recorded either way, is a reason to stop and not book that carer.
- 4
Conviction details, if there are any
Read what is there and how long ago it was, rather than treating any entry as an automatic no. A caution from decades ago is not the same as a recent conviction.
- 5
Every page, in order
The footer reads "Page 1 of 2", "2 of 2" and so on. A certificate missing its later pages can be missing a conviction too.
Only ever accept an original certificate, never a photocopy or a photo of one on a phone, and look for the paper's own security features: a repeated crown-seal watermark down one edge and ink that changes colour if it gets wet. If anything about the document looks altered, or a carer cannot produce the original when you ask, treat that as a reason to stop rather than a detail to overlook. The DBS check tells you whether a carer is safe to be in the room; it says nothing about what happens if something goes wrong while they are there, which is what private carer insurance is for instead.
Keeping it current
Getting a certificate, and keeping it current
A certificate is only ever accurate as of the day it was issued. What happens next depends on how the carer applied for it, and on whether they keep it live afterwards.
- 1
A carer applies through a registered umbrella body
Since 21 January 2026Self-employed carers and people employed directly by a family can now apply for their own enhanced certificate this way, without needing an agency to sponsor the application first. - 2
They subscribe to the DBS Update Service, for £16 a year
Optional, but worth asking forWith their consent and their certificate details, you can then check online at any time whether anything has changed since it was issued, rather than trusting a certificate that might be years old. - 3
You confirm it before the first visit, not after
A few minutesAsk for the certificate number and date of birth, check the Update Service online if they are on it, and keep a note of the date you checked.
Every carer on PrimeCarers has already been through this: their enhanced certificate is seen and kept current on the Update Service for as long as they are on the platform, so this section is mostly for anyone who has found a carer directly and is starting from nothing. Can I employ a private carer? sets out what else you take on if you go that way instead of booking a self-employed carer through a platform.
Questions
Questions families ask about DBS checks
There is no law that requires a family to demand a certificate before booking a carer directly. What the law does say is that personal care for someone outside your family is regulated activity, and it is a criminal offence for someone on the barred list to do that work, or for someone who knows they are barred to let them carry on. In practice, that is why every reputable route to a carer, an agency, an umbrella body, or PrimeCarers, treats an enhanced DBS check with a barred list check as non-negotiable.
A basic check, which anyone can buy on themselves for £21.50, shows only unspent convictions. A standard check adds spent convictions and cautions. Only an enhanced check with a barred list check also shows whether someone is on the adults' or children's barred list, which is the part that matters most for care work.
Yes. Ask for the original certificate and a piece of photo ID, and check the name and date of birth match. A carer with nothing to hide will not mind showing you, and hesitation is worth asking about directly.
It means that list was not checked because it was not relevant to the role applied for, not that anything was found. A carer applying to work with adults may have a children's barred list box marked "not requested", and that is normal. For care of an adult relative, the box that matters is the adults' barred list, and that one should say nothing was found. If the box relevant to the role is blank, marked "not requested", or shows a result other than clear, that is a reason to stop.
Since 21 January 2026, a self-employed carer or someone employed directly by a family can apply for their own enhanced certificate through a registered umbrella body, without an agency to sponsor the application. They apply directly to the DBS, then subscribe to the Update Service so the certificate can be checked again later rather than trusted as a one-off snapshot.
Yes. Every carer's identity, right to work and enhanced DBS certificate are checked, and kept current on the Update Service, before their profile ever appears, alongside an online interview. Background checks on a private carer sets out the full process.