Volunteer's Guide to NSPCC Sport Safeguarding and DBS Checks Under 18 2026

In England and Wales the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) offers four levels:

For coaching children: someone who teaches, trains, instructs, supervises or cares for children often enough (more than 3 days in any 30 days, or overnight) is in regulated activity and is eligible for an enhanced check with the children's barred list. Since 1 September 2026 this applies even if they are supervised by another coach.

Who applies: your club, NGB or an umbrella body acting for them submits standard and enhanced checks; you can't usually get one by yourself. Anyone can apply for their own basic check, but a basic check doesn't show the information needed for coaching roles with children.

Your NGB sets which check each role in its sport needs, so follow its requirements.

The supervision exemption was removed from the legal definition of regulated activity with children, through amendments to the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups Act 2006 (England and Wales) and the Safeguarding Vulnerable Groups (Northern Ireland) Order 2007.

Before: an unpaid helper who taught, trained, instructed, cared for or supervised children was not in regulated activity if someone else (such as a lead coach) supervised them.

Now: if you do any of those things often enough, you are in regulated activity even if you are supervised. "Often enough" means:

• on more than 3 days in any 30-day period, or
• overnight between 2am and 6am (for example on a residential camp or tour).

A weekly session always meets the frequency test, so a regular assistant coach at weekly training is now in regulated activity. Someone who helps once a month is not. The change applies to paid staff and volunteers, and the government names sports clubs among the organisations affected.

What it means for clubs:

• Affected roles are now eligible for an enhanced DBS check with children's barred list, rather than an enhanced check without the barred list.
• The law doesn't itself require new checks. Clubs should identify affected roles, see whether existing certificates included a barred list check, and decide whether new checks are needed, following their NGB's requirements.
• Nobody has to be stood down by law while a check is pending; the club decides what safeguards to apply.
• Occasional parent helpers who don't meet the frequency or overnight test aren't affected.
• Regulated activity with adults has not changed.

Yes, if your role is a regulated role with children. Sports coaches are one of the examples Disclosure Scotland gives.

• It's the law. Since 1 April 2025, under the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020, anyone doing a regulated role with children or protected adults, paid or voluntary, must be a member of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme before they start.
• Offences. Since 1 July 2025 it is a criminal offence to do a regulated role without being a PVG member, and for an organisation to offer a regulated role to someone without a Level 2 with PVG disclosure.
• No trial periods. You can't start the role first and join later.
• Five-year membership. From 1 April 2026, membership lasts five years and must then be renewed through your online account. Disclosure Scotland writes at least three months before it ends. Existing members are being moved from lifetime to five-year membership in phases and don't need to do anything yet.
• Continuous monitoring. Disclosure Scotland keeps checking members while they are in the scheme.
• Under 16s normally can't join, but can help with activities that would be regulated roles for adults. The club must consider their suitability and put safeguards in place.

Not sure if your role is regulated? Disclosure Scotland has a role-checking tool on mygov.scot and a helpline on 0300 020 0040.

Usually an enhanced AccessNI check, requested by your club or governing body.

• You must be 16 or over to get any AccessNI check.
• A barred list check is only available when the role is regulated activity.
• From 1 September 2026, Northern Ireland, like England and Wales, removed the supervision exemption: people who frequently teach, train, instruct, supervise or care for children are in regulated activity even if someone else supervises them.
• Enhanced and standard checks are free for eligible volunteers; the club decides which check the role needs.

Usually not, for the higher-level checks that children's sport needs.

Who counts as a volunteer: someone giving their time unpaid (apart from travel and approved expenses) for the benefit of someone who isn't a close relative. You don't qualify if you are paid beyond expenses, on a work placement, on a course that requires the role, or in a trainee post leading to paid work.

Clubs often apply through an NGB or an umbrella body, which may add its own admin fee even when the government check itself is free.

Only through open, club-approved channels. NSPCC Sport's online safety guidance says:

• No private messages. Messages should never be sent privately by a staff member or volunteer to a young person.
• No one-to-one chats on encrypted platforms. Apps such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger can increase risk because of their privacy and encryption.
• Use public pages, groups or parents. Online contact with young people should be through public pages or groups, or through their parents and carers.
• Keep groups appropriate. Groups should be age-appropriate and limited to people involved with the club.
• Use club accounts. If the club uses an app, messages should come from a club (business) account managed by trained staff and monitored regularly.
• Video sessions: children should join with a parent present.
• Write it down. Messaging rules should be included in the club's codes of conduct for staff, volunteers, parents and children.

NSPCC Sport's transport guidance:

• Avoid driving a child alone. Best practice is not to transport a child on their own. If there is no alternative, try to make sure more than one child is in the car.
• Clubs can leave transport to parents. But if the club asks parents to carry other children, it still has a duty of care to those children.
• Rotate drop-offs. Vary which child is dropped off last, ideally dropping the last two together at an agreed point such as a family home. Rotate drivers too, so no single adult is often alone with a child.
• Tell parents who is driving, why, and how long the journey is. Someone other than the driver should check the child is comfortable with the plan.
• Paperwork: the driver needs a valid licence, insurance and MOT. If you drive in a paid or volunteer role, check your insurance covers it.
• Car seats and belts: children need the right child car seat until they are 12 years old or 135cm tall, whichever comes first. After that they use an adult seatbelt.
• Contacts: the driver should have a contact for each child and a mobile phone in case of breakdown, and the club should hold parents' numbers.

NSPCC Sport recommends a minimum of two adult supervisors for any group, even a very small one.

Its minimum supervision ratios:

These are minimums. The right number for your session should come from your risk assessment, and supervision during travel and overnight stays needs to be checked separately. Your sport's NGB may also set its own coach-to-player ratios.

Only within your club's photography policy. NSPCC Sport's guidance:

• Consent: for a child under 16, consent must be obtained from a parent or carer before taking any photos or videos. Children aged 16 or over may give their own consent if they understand what they're agreeing to, though telling parents is good practice. Anyone can withdraw consent at any time, and that must be respected.
• Have a policy: an organisation that uses or shares images of children must have a policy covering how images are used online and in print, how they're stored, and how children are kept safe. Share it with parents, carers and spectators before events.
• Names: don't publish children's names or other personal details with their images (except where necessary, for example promoting elite young athletes). Be cautious about tagging children on social media.
• Spectators: ask parents and spectators not to share images online, because other people's children can be identified from them.
• Changing rooms: no phones or camera devices in changing or shower areas, for anyone: participants, spectators, staff and volunteers.
• Livestreaming: tell families in advance and get consent, use wide general shots rather than close-ups, and make sure the stream isn't recorded.

NSPCC Sport's guidance:

1. If a child may be in immediate danger, call the police on 999 straight away. Don't wait.
2. You don't have to be sure. You do not need to decide whether abuse has happened in order to report a concern.
3. Tell the right person at your club:
   • At a club affiliated to a national governing body (NGB), tell the club welfare officer. They may pass it to the NGB's lead safeguarding officer, and the NGB's case management process then applies.
   • If the activity isn't NGB-affiliated, tell the club's designated safeguarding person (an organiser, coach or lead). If an Active Partnership runs the activity, it will have a designated safeguarding person too.
4. Keep a record of the concerns you raise.
5. Get advice if you need it: the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 800 5000 or help@nspcc.org.uk, your local council's children's social care team, or the police on 101 (non-emergency).

The welfare officer or lead safeguarding officer decides whether to refer to statutory services such as the police or the local authority.

NSPCC Sport is the new name (from mid-2026) for the NSPCC's Child Protection in Sport Unit (CPSU), set up in 2001. The mission is unchanged. It is funded by the UK sports councils and works with national governing bodies (NGBs), Active Partnerships and other sport organisations to help them keep children safe. It publishes the safeguarding guidance used in this FAQ, on messaging, transport, supervision ratios and photography.

Where it works: England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

What it doesn't do: it doesn't investigate cases and has no regulatory power over clubs or NGBs. Concerns about a child go through your club and NGB, or to the police or children's services.

Scotland: child safeguarding support for Scottish sport comes from the Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport (CWPS) service, a partnership between Children 1st and sportscotland. Scottish clubs should follow their NGB's safeguarding policy, which may differ in detail from the NSPCC Sport guidance here.