Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the Government will take steps to ensure that all people providing care can be subject to regulation and an enhanced DBS check.

All people providing care remain subject to employer checks and controls and employers in the health and care sector must satisfy certain legal duties regarding the skills and competence of their staff. Disclosure and Barring Service checks (DBS checks) are only one means of providing employers with the necessary assurances about a workers’ suitability for a particular role. Employers are legally required to ensure that all workers in a regulated activity with adults and/or children are subject to a relevant enhanced DBS check with a view to preventing people from entering the workforce and undertaking a role from which they are barred from engaging in.

The Government is committed to a proportionate system of safeguards for the professionals who work in the health and care system. We are very clear that statutory professional regulation should only be used in cases where the risks to the public cannot be mitigated in other ways. We have no plans to make an assessment of the potential merits of a national registration and accreditation system for care workers in England at this time.