Continuous monitoring, explained properly

What the DBS Update Service is

The Update Service is the DBS's own subscription that keeps a certificate live. An individual joins it when they apply for a check, or within 30 days of the certificate being issued, and renews it once a year. It is free for volunteers and £15 a year for paid workers from 5 October 2026. While a certificate is on the service, any organisation that holds the individual's authority can run a status check. The DBS answers in one of four ways: the certificate remains current (with or without information on it), it is no longer current, or the details entered do not match what the DBS holds.

If you want to run a check by hand first, our guide explains how to run a DBS Update Service status check, what you need and what each result means.

Most organisations run that status check rarely, or never, and rely on repeating the full DBS check every few years instead. Daily DBS runs it every day.

Independent. Daily DBS is an independent service. It is not part of, or endorsed by, the Disclosure and Barring Service or the UK Government.

Step by step

1. You add your people

Upload a spreadsheet or add people one at a time. For each person we need their name as it appears on the certificate, their date of birth, the certificate number, the level of check, whether they are a volunteer or paid, and a record that they have given your organisation authority to check their status. If someone isn't yet on the Update Service, we tell you; they have to join it themselves, because the DBS requires the individual to subscribe.

2. We check every morning

Each morning our system queries the Update Service for every certificate on your list and records the result: the certificate's status, the date it was printed, when we checked and what came back. Each check is logged, so you have a check history for every person (kept for 12 months while they are on checking).

3. You're told the day something changes

Two things trigger an alert to the contacts you choose: the DBS says a certificate is no longer current, or the DBS says the details do not match. A “details do not match” answer has three possible causes, and we do not guess which: the certificate was never registered with the Update Service, its subscription has lapsed, or a detail we hold has been mistyped. The board says so plainly and you check with the person.

4. Everything is on your board

Your portal shows every person with a status in the DBS's own words, when they were last checked and their check history for the last 12 months. You can export it at any time, which is what you'll want the morning an inspector or auditor asks.

What an alert means

The Update Service tells you that something has changed, not what. When a certificate is no longer current, the person must apply for a new DBS check so you can see the detail and make your own decision. Daily DBS flags it the same day; it doesn't replace your safeguarding judgement or your own procedures.

What we need from you

• Authority. Each person must have given your organisation permission to check their status, and you must be entitled to see that level of check. The portal records this for each person.
• Accurate details. Surname and date of birth exactly as they appear on the certificate. If they do not match, the DBS answers “Details do not match” and the board says so; it is never silently ignored. A check that could not be run at all (the DBS service was unavailable, say) is a different thing again: it does not send an alert, because nothing is known to have changed, but that person shows under Needs attention on the board, the board says the day's checks are not complete, and we are told the same morning.
• The 30-day window. A certificate can only join the Update Service during the application or within 30 days of issue. Anyone with an older certificate needs a fresh check first, through whoever you use for new checks today.

Security and data protection

Your data is held in an encrypted UK-hosted database. Each organisation's records are isolated by rules enforced in the database itself, not just in the screens, so one customer cannot see another's people. Sign in with your work Google or Microsoft account, or have a link emailed to you. No password to create, store or forget. We never store a password, so there isn't one to leak. If you sign in with your organisation's Google or Microsoft account, whatever protections you already apply to it, including multi-factor, apply here too. You can also protect your sign-in with an authenticator app, and owners and administrators can be required to use it. We act as your data processor under a written agreement, we are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office, and we never sell or share your data. Full detail is in our privacy notice.