The Charity Commission updated its safeguarding guidance for charities and trustees on 8 October 2026, the first change of substance since 2021. It reflects two changes to DBS checks this year and the requirements of the Online Safety Act 2023. The change with the widest reach affects charities in England whose volunteers work with children under supervision. Since 1 September 2026, many of those volunteers now need an enhanced DBS check with a barred list check, whereas before they did not.
The Commission’s guidance asks trustees to review affected roles and update their checking arrangements. If your charity uses volunteers with children, that review is worth doing this month.
New to Nonprofit Voice? Our Media Hub carries practical guidance for UK charities, taken from the regulators rather than from other people’s blog posts. Browse the Media Hub.
What changed in the guidance
The Commission’s change note lists the update as reflecting “2026 changes to some DBS checks and the relevant requirements of the Online Safety Act 2023”. In practice, that means three additions.
The first is the removal of the supervision exemption for unpaid work with children, which came into force on 1 September 2026. The second is a change from 21 January 2026 that lets self-employed people apply for an enhanced DBS check through an umbrella body and share it with the organisations that engage them. The third is a requirement that charities covered by the Online Safety Act put measures in place to protect users, particularly children.
The rest of the guidance carries on as before, including the expectation that safeguarding policies are reviewed after any serious incident and at least once a year.
The change for volunteers working with children
Until this year, unpaid teaching, training, instructing, caring for or supervising children was not classed as regulated activity if it was supervised by someone who was themselves in regulated activity. That exemption meant many supervised volunteers fell outside the barred list regime.
The Department for Education’s guidance explains that, from 1 September 2026, supervised unpaid activity of this kind is regulated activity if it happens frequently, or meets the period condition: more than three days in any 30-day period, or overnight between 2 am and 6 am. The change comes from the Crime and Policing Act 2026.
Volunteers in regulated activity need an enhanced DBS check with a check of the children’s barred list. It is an offence for a barred person to engage in regulated activity, and an offence to allow them to. Paid staff are not affected, because the Department for Education’s guidance notes that paid staff with contact with children were already in regulated activity.
For a small charity, the roles most likely to be caught are regular ones: a volunteer who helps at a weekly youth club, a mentor who meets the same young people every week, a sports coach’s assistant, or anyone helping on a residential trip. Occasional help, such as a parent at a one-off event, is not affected.
Two practical points. Days count across settings, so a volunteer who helps at your charity and somewhere else may meet the period condition without either organisation realising. And DBS checks for volunteers are free, so the cost to the charity is time rather than money.
Does this apply in Wales?
The Department for Education’s guidance on this change applies to England. The Commission’s own safeguarding guidance covers England and Wales, and asks trustees to review affected roles without setting out the position in each nation. Charities in Wales should check the current position with the Welsh Government or the Disclosure and Barring Service before changing their arrangements, rather than assuming the English rules apply.
Not listed on Nonprofit Voice yet? A free directory profile, written in your own words, puts your charity in front of supporters and volunteers searching by cause and region. List your charity for free.
Self-employed tutors, coaches and freelancers
Since 21 January 2026, a self-employed person can apply for an enhanced DBS check through a registered umbrella body and share it with the organisations they work for. Before that, there was no straightforward route for them to obtain one on their own account.
This matters for charities that bring in freelancers to work with children or adults at risk: a tutor, a music teacher, a counsellor, a coach. The guidance still expects trustees to risk assess every role and to obtain the right level of check when a role is eligible for one. The difference is that the freelancer can now arrange it, and the charity’s job is to see the certificate and record that it has done so.
Online safety and the Online Safety Act
The guidance has long treated online activity as part of safeguarding, under three headings: content, meaning what appears on your website and social media; contact, meaning how people interact with each other through your services; and conduct, meaning how behaviour is monitored and what is shared.
The update adds a clear line on the Online Safety Act 2023. If the Act applies to your charity, you must put in place measures that protect users, particularly children, and your social media policy should reflect how you comply. The Act is aimed at online services where users can share content with or contact each other, so a charity running a forum, a chat function or an online community is more likely to be covered than one with a website and a social media page. Ofcom has an online tool to help organisations check.
What trustees should do now
Start with the people. List every volunteer role that involves children, and check each one against the new rules on frequency and overnight work. Any role that now counts as regulated activity needs an enhanced check with a children’s barred list check before the volunteer continues.
Then the paperwork. Update your safeguarding policy and your DBS policy to reflect the change, record the board’s decision in the minutes, and make sure your volunteer recruitment process asks the right questions from now on, including if someone volunteers elsewhere.
If you bring in self-employed people to work with children or adults at risk, decide how you will ask for and record their checks. If you run any online service where users interact, use Ofcom’s tool to find out if the Online Safety Act applies to you.
None of this needs to wait for your next annual policy review. The guidance asks for policies to be reviewed when rules change, and these rules have.
Get changes like this as they happen. Regulatory updates, practical guidance and charities joining the directory, sent when there is something worth knowing. Sign up to the newsletter.
