DBS check for Ukrainians in the UK: basic, standard and enhanced explained

Which DBS check Homes for Ukraine sponsors and Ukrainian arrivals need, who applies, who pays, and what an enhanced with barred list check reveals.

The checks that matter are the ones run on the sponsor’s household before a guest moves in. A basic DBS check shows only unspent convictions, while an enhanced DBS check can reveal spent convictions, cautions and other police information, and an enhanced with barred list check adds a search of the children’s barred list and the adults’ barred list. Which check applies depends on your role, and in most cases your local council decides and arranges it. This page sets out who needs what, who applies, who pays and what each certificate actually shows.

Homes for Ukraine DBS requirements

The short answer: sponsors and every member of their household aged 16 or over are checked before a guest is placed with them. The Home Office runs the visa side of the Ukraine Schemes, but safeguarding the placement sits with local authorities, who are responsible for confirming that the hosting household is suitable. Guidance issued by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, now the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, asks councils to satisfy themselves about sponsors before matching a guest.

In practice this means two layers of checking. The named sponsor and the adults living in the home are the main focus, and councils commonly request enhanced checks for them. Other household members may be covered by a basic check. The exact mix is decided locally, so the requirements in one council area can differ slightly from the next.

How sponsors apply for DBS checks

You cannot submit a standard or enhanced application yourself: these checks are available only through registered bodies and umbrella bodies, not to private individuals. For Homes for Ukraine, the council acts as the registered body or routes the application through one. Once your sponsorship offer is matched, the council sends application links, verifies identity documents and receives the resulting certificates.

A basic DBS check is different: anyone can apply for it directly online at gov.uk. If your council asks a household member to provide a basic check that it does not arrange itself, that person applies individually and shares the certificate. The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) issues all three certificate types, and questions about a check in progress go to the DBS rather than to the council.

Who needs a basic DBS check

A basic DBS check is the entry-level certificate: it lists unspent convictions only under the Rehabilitation of Offenders rules, and it is available to any individual on request. In a Homes for Ukraine placement, it typically covers adult household members who are not the named sponsor, where the council wants a record but the role does not meet the legal threshold for an enhanced check.

Ukrainian guests themselves also meet this certificate often, because UK employers in many sectors ask new staff for a basic check as part of routine pre-employment screening. It is the one certificate in the DBS family that a person can obtain without a third party, which makes it the default starting point when someone asks for “a DBS check” without specifying the level.

One caveat matters for anyone relying on a UK basic certificate abroad: the equivalent basic check issued by AccessNI in Northern Ireland discloses unspent convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, and such certificates are not accepted by every country. If a foreign authority has asked you for a UK certificate, check which issuing body it expects before you apply.

Who needs an enhanced DBS check

The main sponsor needs one, and so do other adults in the hosting household, because hosting a displaced person under Homes for Ukraine involves regular contact with someone who may be vulnerable. Eligibility for an enhanced check is set by law rather than by choice: the role must fall into one of the categories the DBS accepts, and the council, as the registered body, makes that judgement when it submits the application.

If your council tells you an enhanced check is required for your household, that is not a reflection on you personally. It is the standard safeguarding route for anyone whose home becomes the setting for a placement.

What enhanced DBS checks reveal

An enhanced certificate goes well beyond a basic one. It shows unspent and spent convictions and cautions, plus any information a chief police officer reasonably believes is relevant to the role. That final category, often called “other relevant information”, can include local intelligence that would not appear on a basic certificate, which is precisely why councils rely on the enhanced level for hosting decisions.

The certificate goes to the registered body, in this case the council, and the applicant also receives a copy. Nothing on it is automatic grounds for refusal: the council weighs what appears against the specific placement. A minor or long-spent matter may be assessed as irrelevant, while anything suggesting a risk to a guest is taken seriously. The assessment is human, not a tick-box exercise.

Enhanced check with barred lists

An enhanced with barred list check adds one thing to a standard enhanced certificate: a search of the children’s barred list and the adults’ barred list, the two statutory lists of people barred from working with children or vulnerable adults. A barred list check is only lawful where the role qualifies for it, so the council requests it when the hosting arrangement meets that threshold, for example where the guest is a child or an adult at risk.

For sponsors, the practical point is simple: if the council asks for the barred list version, agree to it. It is the strongest assurance a council can hold before placing a vulnerable guest.

Checks on household members aged 16+

The threshold is 16 because that is the age at which the DBS system recognises a person for checking purposes. Everyone in the home aged 16 or over when the placement starts is in scope, including adult children, partners and lodgers. The depth of check varies: the sponsor gets the enhanced level, others may get a basic check depending on council policy.

Changes after arrival matter too. If a new adult moves into the household later, the council should be told so the person can be checked. A baby born to the household does not need a check, but councils still expect to be kept informed about who lives at the address.

Local council role in DBS applications: who does what

Three organisations touch every placement, and mixing up their roles causes most of the confusion. The council initiates and assesses, the DBS issues certificates, and the Home Office runs the visa.

So when a certificate is delayed, chase the DBS; when a check has not been requested, chase the council; when the visa stalls, that is a Home Office matter.

Overseas criminal record checks

Ukrainian arrivals sometimes need a criminal record certificate from home for UK purposes. Under the Statement of Changes to the Immigration Rules (HC1078), applicants for certain work visas in health, education and social care must provide a criminal record certificate from every country where they lived for 12 months or more in the previous 10 years (since turning 18, excluding time in the UK), and the application can be refused without one or a satisfactory explanation.

For visa and immigration purposes, the police certificate is issued by ACRO, the Association of Chief Police Officers Criminal Record Office. ACRO certificates are the format recognised for visa applications to a number of countries, including Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Cayman Islands, New Zealand, South Africa and the USA, so if a future employer or immigration authority abroad asks for a “police certificate”, ACRO is the issuing body. Where work with children is involved, an International Child Protection Certificate also comes from ACRO.

Ukrainian nationals who need a certificate from Ukraine while already in the UK can apply through the Ukrainian Embassy in London. Separately, if a UK document needs an apostille for use abroad, the Legalisation Office, part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), is the only authority that legalises UK public documents. Note that AccessNI does not itself issue apostilles, although it is authorised to sign basic certificates so they can go forward for legalisation.

DBS checks for overseas applicants: a sponsor scenario

Sponsors do not necessarily live in the UK. Here is how the process typically runs for a Ukrainian citizen sponsoring relatives from abroad.

Situation. You have offered to host your sister’s family under Homes for Ukraine, but you live outside the UK and have no UK criminal record history for the council to check.

Steps. First, tell the council at the matching stage that you are an overseas sponsor, because the document set differs. Councils commonly ask for a criminal record certificate from your country of residence: for Ukrainian citizens that is a Certificate of Conviction or No Conviction, obtainable through Ukrainian channels including the Ukrainian Embassy in London if you are already in the UK. If you have worked with children or vulnerable adults, a Letter of Professional Standing from your employer or professional body is often requested as additional assurance. The council may also arrange checks on any co-sponsor or household member who is UK-based.

Result. Once the council is satisfied with the documents, the placement can proceed. Request the overseas certificates before you submit the visa application rather than after.

Safeguarding Ukrainian refugees

All of this paperwork exists for one reason: guests arriving under the Ukraine Schemes are often vulnerable, having left their country under emergency conditions. Councils have safeguarding duties to both children and adults, and the DBS regime is one of the tools they use to meet those duties before a guest ever crosses the sponsor’s doorstep.

Safeguarding does not stop at the certificate. Guests with safety concerns can contact their local council’s safeguarding team, and councils carry out welfare visits after arrival. For sponsors, cooperating fully with checks is the clearest signal that the household takes its duty of care seriously, and it protects the sponsor as much as the guest: a documented, checked placement is far harder to dispute later.

Assessing previous offences

A conviction on a certificate is the start of an assessment, not the end of a placement. The council weighs what the offence was, how long ago it happened, whether it is spent, and how it relates to the safety of the specific guest. The DBS itself makes no suitability judgement; it only reports what is on record.

If you know something relevant is on your record, tell your council contact early rather than waiting for the certificate. Councils deal with disclosed histories routinely, and an early conversation lets them assess context instead of reacting to a bare entry. Concealment, by contrast, is the one outcome that reliably ends a sponsorship, because it removes the council’s ability to make an informed decision.

When to start your DBS checks

There is no published deadline, but the sequencing is predictable: the council does not confirm a match until checks are complete. Start the conversation with your council as soon as your sponsorship offer is registered, and apply for any overseas certificates in parallel, since those depend on foreign bureaucracies you do not control.

Two practical rules follow. First, do not book travel dates based on an assumed certificate arrival; wait until the council confirms the placement. Second, if a check is delayed, ask the DBS for its status rather than restarting the application, because a duplicate application resets the clock.

See also

• ACRO certificate vs DBS check: what is the difference

FAQ

Any adult aged 16 or over in the sponsor’s household can be asked to complete one, and Ukrainian guests themselves often need a basic DBS check for UK jobs. It shows only unspent convictions, and anyone can apply for it directly.

The main sponsor and other adults in the hosting household, because the role involves regular contact with a vulnerable person arriving under Homes for Ukraine. The local council decides eligibility and submits the application.

For Homes for Ukraine placements the council normally arranges and covers the checks on the sponsor’s household. A basic DBS check applied for privately is paid by the applicant. Confirm the exact arrangement with your own council, as practice varies.

Contact your local council once your Homes for Ukraine sponsorship is agreed. The council acts as a registered body or through one, sends application links and receives the certificates. Basic checks can be applied for online at gov.uk.

Everything an enhanced check shows, plus a search of the children’s barred list and the adults’ barred list. It is requested only where the role legally qualifies for a barred list check.

No. Standard and enhanced checks can only be submitted by registered bodies or umbrella bodies, not by individuals. For Homes for Ukraine sponsorship the council handles this. Individuals can apply only for a basic check.

An optional subscription that keeps the status of a DBS certificate current so it can be reused with new organisations without reapplying. Sponsors who later work or volunteer with children or adults at risk find it practical.

Applicants for certain work visas in health, education and social care who lived outside the UK for 12 months or more in the last 10 years must provide a criminal record certificate from each such country, under the Immigration Rules change HC1078.

Step by step

1. List everyone in the household aged 16 or over: include yourself, your partner, adult children, lodgers and anyone else who lives at the address where the guest is going to stay.

2. Ask your local council which checks it arranges. Councils handle enhanced checks for sponsors differently. Ask which checks they submit, which they expect you to arrange yourself, and who pays.

3. Complete the enhanced DBS applications the council sends. Fill in the forms and verify identity documents as instructed, because the certificate cannot be issued until the application is complete.

4. Get a basic DBS check for anyone the council cannot cover. Adults not eligible for an enhanced check can apply for a basic check online at gov.uk, which shows unspent convictions only.

5. Consider the DBS Update Service. Signing up keeps the certificate status current so it can be reused if you later volunteer or work in regulated roles.

6. Tell the council if the household changes. A new adult moving in after the guest arrives should be checked before or as soon as they join. Children born or arriving are not DBS-checked but the council should still know.

Helpful guides

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Which countries accept a UK apostille, which require embassy attestation, and country-by-country guides for UK documents used abroad.

Apostille meaning explained for UK documents: what the FCDO certificate looks like, which documents qualify, e-Apostille and when embassy legalisation.

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