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There are just under 5 million people self-employed in the UK. The number of people who are self-employed has been rising steadily over recent years and is now around 15% of the UK working population. Being self-employed, freelance or working as a contractor offers a huge number of benefits in terms of flexibility, but does come with some complications too. One of the main issues which causes confusion is what self-employed people can and cannot do in terms of police records checks.

There’s nothing more frustrating than being kept waiting around. If you’re desperate to start a new job but can’t because you’re waiting for your paperwork, then it’s even more frustrating. DBS checks, also known as criminal records checks or disclosure checks, are essential for many jobs. There’s also a general feeling that DBS checks take forever but is this fair?

If you’re waiting for a DBS certificate before starting a new job, then it can come as a shock when your certificate arrives with errors on it. How can this possibly happen? Surely, we can trust the police to have the correct information about us? Unfortunately, human error is a fact of life and despite everyone’s best efforts, sometimes mistakes are made. But don’t panic. There are systems in place to help you get genuine errors fixed as quickly as possible.

If you’ve recently applied for a DBS check for work, then you might be surprised to find that it doesn’t have an expiry date on it. It’s unusual for government documentation, which is generally valid for a set period of time before expiring. There are however some very good reasons for why a DBS check doesn’t expire, and what you can to do manage the process.

If you are one of the many thousands of people in the UK who have had a minor brush with the law, then getting a DBS check can be a worrying time. Most people aren’t sure about the type of information which will be printed on a DBS certificate and worry about very minor offences from decades ago being disclosed. The process of filtering is best described as releasing information on a “need to know” basis. What is printed on your DBS certificate will depend on a number of factors.

Almost 900,000 people are arrested every year in the UK. In many of these cases the arrested person is taken to the Police station, questioned and then allowed to go home after the Police have decided they’ve got the wrong person, or that no crime has been committed. The person is then free to get on with their life, without any criminal record. Fast forward a few years, and the person who was mistakenly arrested applies for a job in a hospital, school or bank in a position which requires a DBS check to be carried out. Will that old arrest appear on their DBS form?

Applying online for your DBS check is often a lot more simple than printing out the form and doing it by hand. It can be easy to make mistakes on any form though and the DBS is no exception. Although the system will stop you from hitting “submit” without the key pieces of information in place, that doesn’t prevent errors in other sections which will hold up processing of your application. Check you haven’t fallen into any of these common traps before submitting your DBS form.

Any parent will know that childcare is often a constant juggling act. Many nurseries are only open from 8am to 6pm, childminders might have similar hours, having a nanny or au pair living in your house all week might not be practical. If you’re a parent who works very irregular hours or does shifts, it can often be difficult to get good childcare at very short notice, especially when you have no family members to step in and help you out. But how do you wade your way through all the childcare options available, and find the best and safest for your child?

In the UK, it’s the job of an employer to check that the people who are working for them are legally entitled to do so. If employers are caught with illegal workers in their business, they could face fines of up to £10,000 per worker. At first, it might seem quite simple to establish who is here legally, and who is not. But is it really as simple as that?

It’s never easy to know when the time has come to move an elderly relative into a residential care home. An ageing population means that more of us than ever are juggling a busy family life with looking after elderly parents, and there are more care homes than ever offering to look after our loved ones. So, what should you be looking for when on a visit to a care home?