Change to the definition of regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026

From 1 September 2026, the law about regulated activity with children in England and Wales is changing. The current rule about the supervision of paid staff and volunteers carrying out specific activities with children will be removed from the legal definition. The law is also changing in Northern Ireland, refer to the Department of Justice website for more information.

This means some people will be in regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026 when they were not before, because they were sufficiently supervised by someone else. This will apply if they do the work often enough, or overnight.

The DBS have updated this story to include some examples and clarification of what organisations need to do.

Read the news story on the Gov.uk website: Change to the definition of regulated activity with children from 1 September 2026 - GOV.UK