The single central record is a school’s register of the checks carried out before staff and others start work. Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026, the statutory guidance in force from 1 September 2026, sets out who must be on it and which checks it must show, with dates. In my experience the trouble at inspection usually comes from how the checks were recorded, more often than from a check that was never done.
This article covers schools in England. Colleges, independent schools and academies have some extra requirements, noted below. Nurseries and other early years settings work under the EYFS framework, which has its own record keeping requirements.
Who must be on it
According to Keeping Children Safe in Education 2026, the single central record must cover:
- for schools, all staff, including teacher trainees on salaried routes, and agency and third party supply staff, even if they work for one day
- for colleges, staff, including agency and supply staff, providing education to children under 18
- for independent schools, all members of the proprietor body, which for academies and free schools means the members and trustees of the academy trust
Multi academy trusts must record the checks for each academy in a way that allows each academy’s details to be provided separately, and without delay, to anyone entitled to inspect them.
What it must show
For each person, the guidance says the record must show whether each of these checks has been carried out or the certificate obtained, and the date it was completed:
- an identity check
- a standalone children’s barred list check
- an enhanced DBS check, with children’s barred list check
- a prohibition from teaching check
- further checks on people who have lived or worked outside the UK
- a check of professional qualifications, where required
- a check of the person’s right to work in the United Kingdom
Colleges must also record whether a role involves relevant activity with under 18s, and independent schools, including academies and free schools, must record the section 128 checks carried out for people in management positions.
For agency and third party supply staff, the record must show whether the school has written confirmation that the agency carried out the relevant checks, the date that confirmation arrived, and whether details of any enhanced DBS certificate have been provided.
Schools can add other useful information, such as safeguarding and safer recruitment training dates and the name of the person who carried out each check. The record can be kept on paper or electronically.
The gaps that cause problems
Local authority guidance, such as Buckinghamshire Council’s single central record guide, warns about the same recording problems I look for in any review.
Blank cells are the first. A blank could mean “not needed” or “forgotten”, so use N/A where a check does not apply. Then missing dates: the guidance asks for the date each check was completed, and a tick on its own does not show that. Separate spreadsheets for staff, supply and volunteers make gaps easy to miss, and someone with two roles sometimes appears twice when they should appear once, under the role with the most contact with children.
Agency confirmations that are missing or undated are among the easiest gaps to fix and the easiest to overlook. And leavers are often left on. KCSIE says a person’s details should be removed once they no longer work at the school.
Keeping it ready all year
Give the record one owner and one deputy, so two people know it and either can produce it on the day. Make it a rule that nobody starts until their entry is complete, and that leavers come off the record when they go. Once a term, ask someone who does not maintain it to sample a few entries against the original documents. At the start of each school year, check it against the latest KCSIE, which is normally updated each September.
A spreadsheet can do this job perfectly well if it is laid out carefully, and so can a board in a workflow platform. What matters is a column for each check, a date in every entry and something that makes a missing item stand out.
The record is one part of a wider routine, which I cover in staying inspection ready all year.
