How to Check a Private Tutor Is Qualified and Safe

To check that a private tutor is qualified and safe, verify six things before the first paid lesson: their subject qualifications, an enhanced DBS certificate, proof of identity, a real track record you can trace, references from past families, and how they handle a trial lesson. A tutor who is happy to show all six is telling you something a glowing profile photo never can. The point of this guide is to make that check quick and specific, so you can book with confidence instead of hoping for the best.

Most parents feel the same quiet worry at the start: the person in the listing looks lovely, the reviews read well, but you are about to hand them an hour a week with your child, sometimes online, sometimes at your kitchen table. You want to know they are who they say they are and good at what they claim. That is a reasonable thing to want, and it is checkable. Below is exactly what to look at, what to ask for, and how a platform built to make credibility visible does most of this work for you.

The six things credibility is actually made of

A star rating is easy to game and tells you almost nothing about safety. Real credibility is made of specific, verifiable parts, and on Tutorwise those parts map to six checks that sit behind every tutor's profile: delivery (do they actually teach, and do learners come back), credentials (qualifications and subject knowledge), network (who they are connected to and vouched for by), trust (identity verified, plus a background check when the tutor has completed one), digital (a real, consistent online presence), and impact (the difference their teaching makes over time).

You do not need to score a tutor yourself against all six. The value of naming them is that it turns a vague feeling — "do I trust this person?" — into a short list you can work through. The rest of this guide walks each part that matters most for a first booking: qualifications, DBS, identity, track record, references and the trial. Take them in order and you will know, in an afternoon, whether to go ahead.

Qualifications — how to check they are real

Start with what the tutor claims to know. For academic tutoring, that usually means a degree in or close to the subject, and ideally recent experience teaching it at the level your child is sitting — GCSE, A-level, 11-plus, and so on. A maths graduate who tutors GCSE maths is a good sign; a general "tutor" who lists ten subjects across every age group is worth a second look.

Ask two plain questions. First, "What did you study, and where?" Second, "How recently have you taught this exact exam board?" Exam boards change specifications, and a tutor who taught the old AQA syllabus five years ago may not know this year's assessment objectives. You are not being difficult by asking — a confident, qualified tutor answers both in a sentence and often volunteers more.

If a tutor claims qualified teacher status (QTS) or a PGCE, that is checkable against the official register, and a genuine teacher will not mind you doing so. Tutoring does not legally require QTS — many excellent tutors are subject specialists rather than schoolteachers — so its absence is not a red flag. What matters is that the claim they make is true, and that their knowledge fits your child's exam.

The DBS check — the one most parents skip

An enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate is the single most important safety check, and it is the one families most often forget to ask about. It confirms the tutor has been checked against police records and the barred lists for working with children. Ask directly: "Do you have an enhanced DBS check, and can I see the certificate?" A tutor who works with children should expect this question and be able to show a certificate with a date on it.

Two details matter. The check should be enhanced (not basic or standard), because that is the level intended for people working closely with children. And it should be recent or on the DBS Update Service, which lets you confirm it is still current rather than relying on a certificate issued years ago. If a tutor is registered with the Update Service, checking takes minutes. If you want to understand how tutors obtain and maintain these checks, our companion guide on how DBS checks work for tutors explains the process from the tutor's side, which is useful context for knowing what to expect.

A DBS certificate is not a guarantee of good teaching — it is a safety floor, not a quality ceiling. But it is a non-negotiable floor. Any tutor who is evasive about it, or who says a check "isn't really necessary for tutoring", has answered the question for you.

Identity — the check that ties everything together

Qualifications and a DBS certificate only mean something if they belong to the person actually turning up to teach. That is why identity verification sits underneath every other check. It is quietly the most important step, because a certificate in one name and a tutor with another is worth nothing.

In person, this is simple: the name on the DBS certificate should match the person at your door and a form of photo identification. For online tutoring, it matters even more, because you never meet face to face. Confirm that the tutor's verified name, their profile, and the certificates they show all line up. On a platform, look for a profile that has been identity-checked rather than self-declared — the difference between "this person says they are Sarah, a chemistry graduate" and "we have confirmed this person is Sarah, a chemistry graduate" is the whole game.

Track record and references

Once safety and qualifications check out, look at whether the tutor is actually good. A track record is more than a number of years — it is evidence that students stay, progress and come back. Ask how long they typically work with a family and whether they can share, with permission, an example of a student they helped and how.

References from past families are worth asking for and worth actually contacting. One short conversation with a parent whose child the tutor taught last year tells you more than a page of testimonials. Ask that parent three things: did the tutor turn up reliably, did their child's confidence grow, and would they book again. Reliability and confidence matter as much as grades, especially early on. If you are still deciding whether the timing is right at all, our guide on when to get a tutor for your child is a good place to start before you shortlist anyone.

The trial lesson — the check only you can do

Every check so far can be done on paper. The last one cannot. A trial lesson is where you find out whether this qualified, safe, well-reviewed tutor is right for your child. Watch for the things that do not show up on a certificate: does the tutor listen, explain in a way your child understands, and leave them feeling more capable rather than more anxious?

The goal here is confidence, not fear. You are looking for the tutor who helps your child feel that a hard subject is learnable — the one your child is glad to see next week. A good trial lesson ends with your child a little more sure of themselves, and with you clear on what the tutor plans to work on and why. If the fit is not there, that is fine; it is exactly what the trial is for. And if you are moving on from a previous tutor or agency, our switching your tutoring provider checklist covers how to change without losing momentum.

How Tutorwise does most of this for you

Working through six checks by hand is thorough, but it is a lot to ask of a parent who simply wants to help their child before the gap widens. This is the problem Tutorwise is built to solve: making a tutor's credibility visible, so you can see it at a glance instead of chasing certificates.

Every tutor profile on Tutorwise sits behind the same six-check model. Identity is verified rather than self-declared. Where a tutor has completed an enhanced DBS check, that status is verified rather than typed into a bio. Qualifications, teaching history and the pattern of families returning all feed a single, visible signal of credibility — not a star rating anyone can buy, but a picture built from checks that are hard to fake. It is the difference between a marketplace that hopes tutors are honest and one that verifies before a listing goes live.

For families choosing a specialist — for a child with additional needs, for example — that visibility matters even more, because the stakes of getting it wrong are higher and the questions are harder to ask. Our guide on finding an SEN tutor you can trust shows how the same checks apply when you need a specialist rather than a generalist.

You still do the trial lesson — that judgement is yours and always will be. But everything that can be verified before you get there, we verify, so the only question left for you is the one that actually needs a parent: is this the right person for my child?

Your quick pre-booking checklist

Before the first paid lesson, confirm you can answer yes to each of these:

• The tutor's qualifications fit your child's subject and exam board.
• They hold an enhanced DBS certificate you have seen, ideally on the Update Service.
• Their identity is verified and matches the certificates and the person teaching.
• They have a track record you can trace and references you could contact.
• The trial lesson left your child more confident, not less.

Work through those five and you have done what a careful parent can reasonably do. The rest is the relationship itself, which only time reveals.

Frequently asked questions

Are private tutors DBS checked? Not automatically. Unlike schoolteachers, private tutors are not legally required to hold a DBS check, so it is on you to ask. Any tutor working with children should have an enhanced DBS certificate and be willing to show it. On Tutorwise, enhanced DBS status is one of the checks behind a verified profile, so you are not relying on trust alone.

How do I know a tutor's qualifications are real? Ask what they studied and where, and how recently they have taught your child's exact exam board. Claims of qualified teacher status or a PGCE can be checked against the official register. A genuinely qualified tutor answers plainly and does not mind you verifying — evasiveness is the warning sign, not the question.

What questions should I ask a tutor before booking? Ask five: what they studied, whether they have an enhanced DBS you can see, how recently they taught this exam board, whether they can share a reference from a past family, and what they would focus on in a first lesson. Confident, qualified tutors answer all five without hesitation.

Is online tutoring safe for my child? It can be as safe as in-person tutoring, but identity verification matters more because you never meet face to face. Confirm the tutor's verified name, profile and certificates all match, keep lessons in shared family spaces where you can see and hear them, and use a platform that checks identity rather than taking it on trust.

What does "verified" mean on Tutorwise? It means a tutor's profile has been checked, not self-declared — identity confirmed, any enhanced DBS check verified rather than self-declared, qualifications and teaching history reviewed, and a visible signal of credibility built from all of it. It is designed to answer the question every parent asks first: how do I know this tutor is any good?

Related reading

• When should you get a tutor for your child?
• SEN tutor: how to find a specialist you can trust
• How DBS checks work for tutors
• Switching your tutoring provider: a practical checklist

Ready to see credibility instead of guessing at it? Browse verified tutors on Tutorwise and start your search with the checks already done.