Overseas checks under KCSIE

What KCSIE 2026 says about people who have lived or worked outside the UK

The rule is in Part three of Keeping children safe in education 2026 (KCSIE), the statutory guidance in force from 1 September 2026. Paragraph 313, which lists the mandatory pre-employment checks every school and college must make – maintained, academy, free school or independent – includes this one: "if the person has lived or worked outside the UK, make any further checks the school or college consider appropriate".

Paragraph 359 sets out what that means. Individuals who have lived or worked outside the UK must undergo the same checks as all other staff, and that "includes obtaining (via the applicant) an enhanced DBS certificate (including children's barred list information, for those who will be engaging in regulated activity) even if the individual has never been to the UK". Then: "In addition, schools and colleges must make any further checks they think appropriate so that any relevant events that occurred outside the UK can be considered."

Three points in that wording carry most of the weight. The enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check is never replaced by an overseas criminal record check; a UK certificate for someone who has never been here will be clear, and it still has to be obtained, because the children's barred list check is part of it. The further checks are a judgement for the school, not a fixed list, which is why the record of the judgement matters. And the guidance draws no line by country: since the UK left the EU, the same approach applies "regardless of whether or not it was in an EEA country or the rest of the world".

KCSIE sets no minimum period abroad. The twelve-month and ten-year thresholds that appear in many HR guides come from the immigration rules for visa applicants in education and some other sectors, which require criminal record certificates from countries the applicant has lived in; that is a Home Office requirement on the applicant, not the school's KCSIE duty. A British teaching assistant who spent two years working in a school in Spain has lived and worked outside the UK, whatever their nationality and whatever the visa rules say.

Who it applies to, and one exception

The duty follows the person's history, not their nationality or their role. Applicants and schools meet it in several shapes:

• Teachers recruited from abroad, directly or through an international recruitment agency, often with a visa application running alongside.
• UK nationals returning from teaching in an international school, a year of voluntary work overseas, or a career outside education abroad.
• Support staff, technicians and cover supervisors who grew up or worked outside the UK before settling here.
• Agency and supply staff, for whom the school must obtain written notification from the agency that it has carried out the same checks the school would otherwise make (paragraph 364), which includes the overseas checks.
• Members of an academy trust or a proprietor body, where paragraph 402 asks the chair to make further checks as they consider appropriate if an enhanced DBS check alone is not sufficient because the person lives or has lived overseas.
• Volunteers in regulated activity, for whom the school decides what further checks are proportionate as part of the same safer recruitment process.

The application form is where the duty is triggered. Paragraph 294 asks for a full employment history since leaving school, including education, employment and voluntary work and reasons for any gaps, and a history with a period abroad in it is the prompt. Paragraph 296 then asks shortlisted candidates to self-declare, among other things, "information about any criminal offences committed in any country in line with the law as applicable in England and Wales, not the law in their country of origin or where they were convicted", and "any relevant overseas information".

There is one exception. Paragraph 314 says a school need not obtain an enhanced DBS certificate or carry out checks for events outside the UK if, in a period that ended not more than three months before the appointment, the person worked in a school in England in a post that brought them regularly into contact with children, or in one of the other posts that paragraph lists; paragraph 315 does the same for colleges. Paragraph 316 adds that the school should still consider whether a fresh check would be appropriate, and all the other pre-appointment checks, including a separate barred list check for regulated activity, still apply. Record that the exception was used and why.

The checks available, and what each tells you

Paragraph 359 names two checks that "could" be made, where available, and the DfE's guidance on recruiting teachers from overseas adds others. In practice schools draw on these:

• A criminal records check from the other country. Some countries issue a police certificate or certificate of good conduct; others do not. The Home Office publishes country-by-country guidance on criminal records checks for overseas applicants, and its own words are that the process "varies from country to country" and that the applicant applies in the country or to the relevant embassy in the UK. The applicant obtains it; the school sees it.
• A letter of professional standing, for teaching posts. Paragraph 359 describes "obtaining a letter (via the applicant) from the professional regulating authority" in each country where the applicant has worked, "confirming that they have not imposed any sanctions or restrictions, and or that they are aware of any reason why they may be unsuitable to teach". The regulator is often the ministry of education but varies; applicants can find EU, EEA and Swiss regulators on the Regulated Professions database. The DfE guidance adds that the letter should ideally confirm that the applicant's "authorisation to teach has never been suspended, barred, cancelled, revoked or restricted and that they have no sanctions against them".
• References from overseas employers, obtained directly from the referee and verified in the way paragraph 303 requires for every reference. The DfE guidance asks for at least two, one from the most recent employment.
• Verification of qualifications. Some overseas qualified teachers can apply to the Teaching Regulation Agency for qualified teacher status, and the DfE's Check a teacher's record service confirms an award of QTS. Paragraph 363 is careful to add that a teaching qualification, wherever it was obtained, gives no assurance that the person "has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing or misconduct".
• The prohibition check in England, for anyone employed to carry out teaching work, and the usual online search on shortlisted candidates, which may turn up reporting from abroad.

Each of these tells you something narrower than it appears to. Paragraph 362 warns that not all countries provide criminal record information, that the nature and detail vary, and that the criteria for disclosing offences in other countries "often have a different threshold than those in the UK". Paragraph 361 notes that a sanction imposed by another regulator does not of itself prevent someone teaching in England, but the school should consider the circumstances that led to it. None of the checks is a pass mark; each is evidence to be weighed with everything else in the file.

When a country provides nothing, or the certificate is late

Paragraph 360 covers the case every recruiter meets eventually: "Where this information is not available schools and colleges should seek alternative methods of checking suitability and or undertake a risk assessment that supports informed decision making on whether to proceed with the appointment." The DfE's overseas recruitment guidance says it is good practice to carry out a risk assessment, "recording the evidence you have gathered to reach your decision and showing you have no grounds for concern about the applicant".

A risk assessment of this kind is short and specific. It should say what was sought and why it is not available (the country does not issue certificates, the embassy has not replied, the applicant was a child when they lived there), what other evidence was obtained instead, such as an extra reference from the overseas employer, a verified employment history or a professional standing letter, what the self-declaration said, and who decided to proceed and on what basis. Where the certificate is simply late rather than unavailable, it should also say whether the person may start before it arrives, under what supervision, and when the file will be reviewed.

The same questions apply to a certificate that arrives in a language nobody at the school reads. A document you cannot understand is not a check; record how its contents were confirmed. And treat what it discloses the way you treat a DBS certificate. Paragraph 356 puts "records of criminal information disclosed by the candidate" under Article 10 of the UK GDPR, so keep the fact of the check, the date and the decision, not a copy you have no reason to hold. Our DBS record-keeping guide sets out the six-month limit on copies.

What the single central record and the file should show

Paragraph 350 lists "further checks on people who have lived or worked outside the UK" among the checks the single central record must indicate, with the date each was completed. The register records that the further checks the school considered appropriate were made, and when. It does not hold the certificate, the letter or the risk assessment. The letter and the risk assessment belong on the personnel file, with the reasoning; an overseas criminal records certificate is criminal records information, handled under paragraph 356 in the same way as a copy of a DBS certificate. Our single central record guide covers the rest of the row.

The overseas column is the one most often left blank, and a blank is ambiguous. It can mean the person has never lived abroad, the exception in paragraph 314 applied, or nobody looked. Write the answer in every row: not applicable with the reason, or the checks made with their dates.

Inspectors read that column like any other. Ofsted's lead inspector looks at the single central record at the start of the inspection, and a register that shows years abroad on the application but nothing in the overseas column is one of the gaps our single central record guide lists. What turns a question into a finding is not usually the absence of a certificate, which the guidance anticipates, but the absence of any record of what the school decided instead.

"The embassy says eight weeks" – where the decision to proceed is made

Overseas recruitment is conducted at a distance, and much of it by message. The candidate is in another time zone and replies from their personal phone. The agency's consultant texts the business manager to say the police certificate has been applied for but will not arrive before September. The head of department asks in a staff group chat whether the new teacher can start while it is outstanding, and the head replies "yes, reference from her last school was excellent, let's risk-assess". The risk assessment is then written, if it is written, from memory a week later.

The exchange in which the school decided to proceed without a certificate is exactly what paragraph 360 means by informed decision making, and the reasons given in it are the evidence the DfE asks schools to record. When it lives on three personal phones and an agency consultant's account, the school cannot produce it, and the risk assessment on file is a reconstruction.

The fix is not to stop messaging the candidate or the agency; that is how international recruitment works. It is to have the internal part of the conversation somewhere the school holds, and to end it with a line that goes on the file. ComplyChat provides a channel for the work conversations around recruitment and safeguarding, with everyone added told that it is on the record and able to object or leave. A mobile number verified by SMS is an identity on it, so someone with no school account yet, such as a recruit before their start date or an agency contact, can be added to a channel. On paid plans the lasting record files into the school's or trust's own Microsoft 365 once the tenant is connected, under its own retention rules. It is not a vetting service, it does not obtain or verify overseas checks, and certificates and letters belong on the personnel file, not in a message. ComplyChat Free is personal messaging with one private group, direct messages and three calendar months of recent history, with no Microsoft 365 archive; upgrading cannot restore expired history.

A question for the next leadership or governors' meeting: for the last person we appointed with time abroad, could we show who decided which overseas checks were appropriate, and where that decision was made?

Official guidance and your next step

The primary source is Part three of Keeping children safe in education 2026: paragraph 313 for the checks, 314 to 316 for the three-month exception, 350 for the register, 355 and 356 for retention, and 359 to 363 for people who have lived or worked outside the UK. Paragraph numbers and quotations are from the edition in force from 1 September 2026; check the current edition before citing one. Read it with the DfE's guidance on recruiting teachers from overseas and the Home Office's country guidance on criminal records checks for overseas applicants. Visa requirements are set by the immigration rules, not by KCSIE; check them on GOV.UK for the route in question.

This guide is a practical starting point for schools and colleges in England, not legal or immigration advice about an individual appointment. Have the people responsible for safer recruitment check your policy says who decides which overseas checks are appropriate and where the risk assessment is kept.

Then do one thing: filter the register for everyone whose application form shows time outside the UK and read the overseas column for each. Every blank gets an answer this week, even if the answer is that a risk assessment is now overdue.