Adult Social Care Briefing
Issue 010 | 3 September 2026
A weekly briefing highlighting significant developments affecting leaders of adult social care services for older people in England, with a focus on what providers need to know and what they should be considering in practice.
This Week’s Headline
DBS Publishes New Eligibility Guidance for Adult Social Care Roles
The Disclosure and Barring Service published new eligibility guidance on 1 September 2026, alongside an updated version of its guidance specifically for adult social care roles.
The guidance is intended to help organisations determine whether roles are eligible for Basic, Standard, Enhanced or Enhanced with Adults’ Barred List DBS checks.
What Has Changed?
DBS has reorganised and expanded its eligibility guidance from 1 September, including new guidance specifically for roles working with adults.
The updated adult social care guidance covers a wide range of roles, including healthcare professionals, care workers, shared lives, adult social workers, transport and auxiliary roles such as cleaners and maintenance staff.
This is particularly useful because DBS makes clear that eligibility depends on the role and activities being undertaken. Changes to someone's role or the activities they carry out can affect the level of check that is applicable.
This should not be interpreted as a change to the definition of regulated activity with adults. The practical development this week is the publication of refreshed guidance to help organisations make the correct eligibility decision.
Why It Matters
Most providers will already have established DBS arrangements, but this is worth checking because roles do not always fit neatly into a standard recruitment matrix.
DBS confirms that organisations need to consider factors including who the role interacts with, where the work takes place, the activities undertaken and, where relevant, how frequently those activities take place.
For regulated activity with adults, this includes providing healthcare by, or under the direction or supervision of, a regulated healthcare professional and providing specified forms of personal care.
This is particularly relevant where roles have developed over time, staff work across different services, healthcare activities are delegated, or ancillary staff and contractors have regular contact with residents.
Actions for Providers
Take a sample of roles from your recruitment or DBS matrix and check them against the new DBS guidance, particularly where duties are less straightforward.
Check roles that have changed over time and make sure the DBS eligibility decision still reflects what the person actually does.
Look specifically at care staff undertaking healthcare activities, ancillary staff, activities staff, volunteers and regular contractors rather than assuming the same check automatically applies to everyone working within a care setting.
Make sure job descriptions provide enough detail to support the DBS eligibility decision.
Check that recruitment teams know where to find the new DBS eligibility guidance rather than relying solely on historic organisational practice.
Resident Health
RSV Vaccination Eligibility Expanded from 1 September
From 1 September 2026, the NHS RSV vaccination programme has expanded to include previously unvaccinated people aged 65 to 74 who are immunosuppressed or have chronic respiratory disease as defined within the national programme. Well-controlled asthma alone is not included within the chronic respiratory disease group.
The wider programme includes everyone aged 75 and over and any adult residing in, or moving into, a care home for older adults.
What Has Changed?
The new element from 1 September is the addition of the two clinical risk groups for people aged 65 to 74.
Eligibility for all adults living in older people's care homes was introduced from 1 April 2026. UKHSA confirms that adults aged 18 to 74 already resident in care homes for older adults who have not previously received an RSV vaccination are eligible.
Admission to an older people's care home is also identified as an opportunity to confirm vaccination status and offer vaccination where the person remains unvaccinated.
The programme is year-round, there is no upper age limit, and people currently require a single dose.
Why It Matters
The September expansion is particularly relevant to homecare, supported living and other community services supporting people aged 65 to 74 who may now fall within the additional clinical risk groups.
For older people's care homes, it is also worth checking that the wider care-home eligibility introduced in April has translated into practice. A resident does not have to be 75 to qualify simply because they are living in an older people's care home.
Actions for Providers
Make RSV vaccination status part of the normal vaccination information collected on admission or transfer into an older people's care home.
Check whether residents who have not previously received an RSV vaccination have been identified and offered access through the NHS programme.
For community-based services, make sure teams are aware that some people aged 65 to 74 with chronic respiratory disease or immunosuppression are newly eligible from 1 September.
Where residents need support with consent or decision-making, ensure normal Mental Capacity Act processes are followed.
Record vaccination status and outcomes clearly enough that the position is readily available to those supporting the person.
Workforce Development
More Level 5 Leadership Qualifications Added to the Learning and Development Support Scheme
DHSC updated the Adult Social Care Learning and Development Support Scheme on 1 September 2026, including further Level 5 leadership and management qualifications within the eligible course list.
What Has Changed?
The current list now includes new Level 5 Diploma in Leading and Managing an Adult Social Care Service qualifications from Pearson, FuturU and Qualifi.
The maximum reimbursement shown for each is £1,565 for qualifications paid for between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2027.
The £1,565 figure is a maximum reimbursement amount, not an automatic payment. Employers can claim evidenced expenditure up to the published maximum, and overall funding is limited.
Why It Matters
This could be particularly useful for providers developing deputies, registered managers and future service leaders.
The main LDSS funding is available for eligible non-regulated adult social care staff in England. DHSC specifically confirms that this includes deputy managers and CQC-registered managers.
Eligible employers must provide an adult social care service, directly employ care staff in England and have an up-to-date Adult Social Care Workforce Data Set account.
There are also specific claim timescales. For qualifications, reimbursement is split between a 60% claim when the qualification has started and been paid for, and the remaining 40% following completion.
Actions for Providers
Check planned Level 5 leadership qualifications against the current LDSS eligible list before committing organisational funding.
Review deputies, aspiring managers and others already identified through succession or development planning who may benefit.
Check both the exact qualification and awarding organisation rather than assuming any Level 5 adult social care qualification will be eligible.
Make sure your ASC-WDS account is up to date if you intend to claim.
Check the claim and evidence requirements at the point of enrolment rather than trying to reconstruct the evidence afterwards.
Leadership Reflection
There is a fairly simple theme running through this week's updates.
National guidance changes, eligibility expands and funding becomes available, but none of that necessarily means it reaches the people who could benefit from it.
A recruitment team can continue requesting the same DBS checks because that is what it has always done. A resident under 75 can miss an RSV vaccination because somebody assumes they are too young. A deputy manager can be enrolled on a qualification without anyone checking whether funding is available.
Good governance does not mean turning every update into a new policy, audit or action plan. Sometimes it is simply making sure the right information reaches the right person and checking that practice has changed where it needs to.
Five Things I’d Be Thinking About This Week
Do our DBS decisions reflect what people actually do within their roles rather than simply their job titles?
Have any roles changed since our current DBS matrix was developed?
Do our older people's care homes know which residents have and have not received an RSV vaccination?
Who are the deputies and aspiring managers we should be developing now rather than waiting until we have a registered manager vacancy?
Before we pay for another qualification, have we checked whether LDSS funding is available?
Sources
Editorial Note
This briefing covers material developments reviewed up to 3 September 2026.
The DBS material is refreshed eligibility guidance and has not been presented as a change to the legal definition of regulated activity with adults.
The September RSV change relates specifically to the addition of eligible clinical risk groups aged 65 to 74. The wider eligibility of adults residing in, or moving into, older people's care homes took effect from 1 April 2026 and is included because of its direct relevance to care-home providers.
LDSS reimbursement is subject to eligibility, evidence requirements, claim timescales and available funding. Maximum reimbursement figures should not be interpreted as guaranteed payments.
The Why It Matters, Actions for Providers, Leadership Reflection and Five Things I'd Be Thinking About This Week sections contain professional interpretation and practical considerations based on the verified source information.
Looking Ahead
The adult phase of the 2026/27 seasonal flu vaccination programme begins on 1 October 2026. September is therefore a useful point for providers to make sure resident vaccination arrangements, staff access routes, consent processes and recording arrangements are organised.
The Government's current timetable also places regulations establishing the Adult Social Care Fair Pay Agreement Negotiating Body in October 2026, subject to parliamentary processes. I will return to this when the regulations themselves are published and there is something new for providers to act on.
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