A British citizen about to teach English at a school in Valencia, coach at a sports club or work at a summer camp keeps hitting the same confusion. In the UK, "working with children" and "criminal record" are solved by one document: the DBS check. In Spain they are two separate things, and the document the Spanish authorities want is not the DBS. Let's untangle it, because bringing the wrong paper costs weeks.
Two systems for two different jobs
The DBS check (Disclosure and Barring Service) is the UK's internal system for vetting someone before hiring them. It has four levels:
- Basic: unspent convictions and conditional cautions only.
- Standard: spent and unspent convictions and cautions.
- Enhanced: the above plus any information local police consider relevant to the role.
- Enhanced with barred lists: the above plus whether the person is on the children's barred list or the adults' barred list.
The Enhanced with barred lists is what a UK employer requests for regulated activity with children: teaching, caring, supervising. It is an employment check, not a criminal record certificate to present to a foreign government. And it has two limits that make it useless outside the UK: it does not cover time the person lived outside the UK, and it carries no signature, so it cannot even be apostilled without being notarised first.
The ACRO Police Certificate is the opposite: the ACRO Criminal Records Office is the UK authority designated to issue the criminal record certificate intended for use abroad — immigration, visas, employment outside the UK. It bears the handwritten signature of an ACRO official (no notarisation needed) and can be apostilled by the FCDO. It is the document foreign authorities recognise as the equivalent of a "UK criminal record certificate".
In short: the DBS points inward, the ACRO points outward. Submitting a DBS in Spain instead of the ACRO is a common cause of rejection or delay.
What Spain requires to work with minors
Here is the piece that trips up most Britons. Spain does not settle work with minors through the general criminal record certificate. It requires a specific document: the Certificado de Delitos de Naturaleza Sexual (certificate of sexual offences), issued by the Central Registry of Sex Offenders and Human Trafficking at the Ministry of Justice.
The legal basis is Organic Law 8/2021 on comprehensive child protection (which reinforced article 13.5 of Organic Law 1/1996): every professional or volunteer working in regular contact with minors must prove they have no convictions for sexual offences.
A Spaniard obtains it from the Central Registry. A foreigner must also provide the equivalent certificate from their country of origin or nationality, confirming the absence of such offences, translated and legalised. This is where a Briton submits their ACRO — not their DBS — because the ACRO is the UK criminal record certificate that Spain recognises. The DBS barred lists, however relevant in the UK, are an internal British register that Spanish authorities do not consult or accept as a substitute.
So, ACRO or DBS? The honest answer
The specific requirements are set by whoever hires you or the body processing the case in Spain: the regional education authority, the school, the club, the camp operator. Some employers, used to the British system, ask for "a DBS" out of habit. But what counts for the Spanish administrative procedure is:
- The Spanish Certificado de Delitos de Naturaleza Sexual (requested once in Spain, free of charge).
- The British ACRO Police Certificate as the country-of-origin certificate, apostilled by the FCDO and with a sworn translation into Spanish.
If the employer insists on a DBS in addition to the ACRO, that is their HR requirement, not the administration's. Best to confirm it in writing before spending on the wrong document.
Apostille and sworn translation
The ACRO is apostilled by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (Milton Keynes) with no prior step, because it already carries an official signature. The DBS, being unsigned, would have to be notarised first — another practical reason not to use it in a Spanish file.
Once apostilled, the ACRO reaches the counter in English, and Spain requires a sworn translation into Spanish by a translator authorised by the MAEC. The apostille is part of the document: apostille first, translate afterwards, so the stamp is included in the translation. The process, timelines and common mistakes are in our guide to the sworn translation of a criminal record. And if you are weighing the ACRO against the US FBI or the French B3, see the comparison of international criminal records.
Bear in mind, too, that if you are going to live and work in Spain this certificate is usually part of a larger file: your foreigner's identity card (TIE).
At Textualia we translate the apostilled British ACRO and deliver it as an electronically signed PDF, ready for the Central Registry and for the organisation hiring you. Upload the certificate to the quote tool and you get the price instantly.