CRB checking is designed for employers to vet prospective employees or contractors who may at some point have access to children in education and child care contexts. EG teachers, nursery workers, nannies, carers, childminders, doctors, youth workers, and service contractors working in premises where children are being cared for.

Very few photographers will need CRB checks, although specialist schools photographers contracted to LEA's (local education authorities) are usually checked as a precaution by Councils. Unsupervised access to minors should never arise if staff are doing their jobs correctly.

To satisfy legal requirements and for their own protection from allegations of misconduct, photographers should be supervised at all times by CRB-checked staff when working with minors in educational and childcare settings. The legal requirement for CRB checking then does not arise.

Because CRB checking is a duty on employers there is no mechanism whereby self-employed indiividuals can obtain CRB checks for themselves. If it is really necessary your employer or client will have to carry out the check. It typically costs around £60 and takes 2-6 weeks. There is no certificate or record of satisfactory vetting that is issued to the subject. Furthermore CRB checks are not necessarily portable between employers or local authorities (acceptance is discretionary) and anyway expire after 2 years.

'Police checks' are often confused with CRB checks. Anyone can get a 'police check' done on themselves at a local police station, which costs a lot less and is faster but is not the same thing at all. A police check is a disclosure of criminal record, where CRB checking also discloses expunged offences and records of allegations and investigations that have not resulted in charges or conviction.