Foreword – Director Jonathan Bazely
2025 has been another year of change in the pre-employment screening industry, where amendments to regulation and Government policy continued to challenge ways of working. As always, the team have been working hard to react to this changing landscape and to deliver on our quality, security and social value commitments. This year saw major framework amendments, with corresponding processing updates from the Disclosure and Barring Service, Disclosure Scotland, Access Northern Ireland and the UKDIATF. Updated systems and processes have been rolled out to support these changes, and keep our clients compliant.
Looking back at 2025
Improvements to client and applicant support
With so many changes in 2025 we saw a step-up in the requests for support from applicants providing their information, and clients seeking updates. This highlighted to us the importance of providing an exceptional customer service function, and being more pro-active to spot areas for improvement.
In August, September and October we experienced a more than doubling of incoming contacts to the business, which stretched the team’s responsiveness. The business reacted quickly to recruit and train new team members, and we were back on track with support levels in November. We learned valuable lessons from this period and are pleased to confirm that there are a number of developments coming through in 2026. The first being an upgraded phone system, which will go live in early 2026. The new system will offer double the capacity of our previous setup, along with additional communication channels and enhanced features. These improvements will enable us to better manage unexpected surges in contact and ensure our valued clients and applicants can reach us more easily.
After speaking with some clients, what would be beneficial, is more information on response rates to set an expectation and then achieve that. We listened, and are actively working to improve how we communicate challenges at any point in the process. Future improvements to email communications, sms, and basic system functionality for applicant, will continue to feed into processes throughout the year as the improvements project progresses.
DDC ID version 2.0
At the start of May, we released the newest version of our digital identity app with focuses on an improved applicant journey, more information at the point of need and updated guidance on getting the best out of the user’s mobile device. Many will have seen the newest video tutorial on using the app, which is available to applicants as part of their application journey. This saw a marked increase in the success rate of the app, and more applicants completing their identity validation journey fully remotely. At the time of writing we’re seeing around 900 applicants per month choosing digital identity as their preferred option. Into 2026 we believe this will increase as more clients choose to reduce their administrative burden, and leave digital validation to the professionals. There are still improvements to be made and we are heavily investing our time and energy into making this even better!
Digital Identity and the ‘Brit Card’
Throughout 2025 the drive towards digital hiring continued, much of it behind the scenes. The Prime Minister’s announcement that all British citizens would require a ‘Brit Card’ to prove their right to work, came as quite a shock to many in the industry. The fact that this news came on the eve of the implementation of the legislation that would have brought the 50+ existing certified digital identity providers into a common approved framework, raised more than a few eye brows. As a technology first organisation, DDC have been right at the forefront of the UK’s drive for a thriving digital identity eco system. Since our first ‘mock audit’ in 2018 we’ve been meeting with Civil Servants and various Government representatives to ensure our continued investment in a fledgling industry, was being supported. What the whole industry wanted was access to Government held data sources so we can verify identity documents quickly and efficiently. As recently as May 2025 we attended a meeting with Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology on the drive towards a digital driving licence accessible through a Government wallet.
Following peer discussions on the latest proposals, there is broad consensus across the industry that the current lack of clarity is creating challenges for innovation and investment. Many participants noted that an estimated £1.2 billion government spend in developing a new system, may duplicate capabilities that private industry is already in a position to provide, particularly in the context of wider pressures on public funding.
We remain ready to engage constructively and would welcome clearer direction, along with the opportunity to collaborate on Government plans at an early stage in 2026.
New Member of the Association of Digital Verification Professionals (ADVP)
The ADVP is a trade body representing U.K. companies involved in the electronic validation of documents and verification of digital credentials. Part way through the year the DDC Management Team decided to reach out to the ADVP to formally join. We wanted to share ideas, contribute to governance, and have a voice in the Government changes that were being introduced. Since then, the team have provided some key insights to the sectors we support, and also highlight challenges across the pre-employment sector.
DBS changes
The DBS announced in the early part of 2025 that they would be updating their identity documentation requirements to make a single set of rules for all UK and non-UK applicants. This included removing the requirement to provide a document that confirmed a current address or right to work, and also allows for applicants to apply in another name, (if they had documentation/evidence to confirm a name change). These changes were implemented by DDC in October 2025. As a full outsourcing provider, DDC made all the required changes to the system and clients would have seen very little difference to the processes undertaken, despite the technical changes implemented. The mandated logs, document records and reasons for acceptance are being stored by DDC to meet with any future audit requirements that the DBS may have, so you do not need to worry about keeping copies of documents.
What’s happening in 2026
DDC ID continues to grow and deliver
DDC are now on the second iteration of our digital identity mobile application and in 2026 we are looking to continue to build on this. There are already developments in the pipeline that will help save clients even more resource, and streamline the applicant journey further. We hope that the progress we made in 2025 will continue and make the digital service one of the best of its kind.
Social Media check enhancements
Many clients currently take our Social Media checking service, which has become more prevalent in the education sector with the ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’ update in 2025. We released the first version of this service in 2020 and we’ve been listening to your feedback over the last 12 months as to how we can improve this. In early 2026 the service will be upgraded to make it easier and faster to request, as well as providing regular status updates along the way so you know where we are in the process.
The Update Service
For a long time, we’ve had an aim to build a compliant solution for the DBS Update Service. One that has the same efficacy as the current DBS application process and give organisations confidence dispersed teams are carrying out all required checks adequately. The challenge has always been that the Update Service is an applicant led system, and we work on behalf of many clients to deliver compliant safeguarding solutions. We have now designed a system that will support clients to use the established checking tools alongside an Update Service certificate checking system. Work has already begun on this and we expect it to be released to select clients in 2026, before being offered as a service with every application. A further news article will be released nearer the time with further information.
Get in contact
You can expect the team to be participating in industry conferences and education events, as well as running educational workshops in the coming months. This year, we have joined forces with nEdEx as a partner, sharing our experiences and insights on meeting new education industry challenges.
Keep an eye out for our newsletters if you want to know when these will be. If you have questions about the information above, please get in touch with one of the team via our ‘Contact Us’ page.
Stay connected
We currently get lots of positive feedback through our own customer feedback questionnaire, and word of mouth is the given reason for approximately 45% of our new business.
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Finally, we would like the time to thank our clients for your partnership this year and we look forward to continuing this in 2026.
