Safer recruitment is an essential part of safeguarding. It is a term which is used when recruiting individuals (volunteers and employees), and processes which are used to try and discourage people who could potentially cause harm to vulnerable individuals (children and young people).
Carrying out the correct processes to recruit will ensure the people you take on will be suitable and appropriate to work with vulnerable individuals.
Safer recruitment should be a continuous process where you are looking to ensure improvements are made where the organisation provides services to vulnerable individuals.
Training for safer recruitment
All individuals recruiting into roles that require safer recruitment practices will need to be trained to ensure that they can:
- develop safer recruitment policies and procedures
- select the right individuals for interview
- carry out the required background checks on the candidates
1. Develop safer recruitment policies and procedures
Policies and procedures – All organisations should have policies and procedures in place on how to carry out safer recruitment and what to do with any concerns, risks or allegations.
Job adverts – One important point to mention is that employers are required to publicise that they practice safer recruitment when advertising a role, and that there is an expectation that the organisation will carry out DBS and background checks.
Planning – It is important to ensure that your recruitment process is planned so that nothing is missed or that recruiting managers do not feel overwhelmed or under pressure to recruit. Therefore, whoever is responsible for recruitment is very proactive as keeps an up to date workforce plan. This also ensure you have sufficient time to carry out all the required checks on each candidate.
2. Select the right individuals for interview and for the role
Application forms should include questions around the individual’s experience of working with vulnerable individuals and whether they have been dismissed due to any safeguarding concerns.
3. Carry out the required background checks on the candidates
Reference checks should be carried out before interview, to ensure that the employer is prepared to use the interview time to question anything that may arise in the references. Reference requests should include questions about the individual’s suitability to work with vulnerable individuals.
This is gives the employer the opportunity to reject any candidates that have not met the relevant safer recruitment criteria.
All successful candidates will need to have reference, identity, qualification, employment history and DBS checks undertaken.
What references are employers required to obtain?
employers are required to obtain two employers references. One from the candidates current employer and one from their previous employer. The employers references ideally need to cover a continuous 5 years. If there is a gap in employment, employers need to understand from the candidate what they were doing during that period, then seek to obtain a character reference who can confirm where the candidate was and what they were doing during this period.
What if the candidate does not have two employers references, is it ok to obtain a character reference?
There are various reasons why a candidate cannot provide a second employers reference. It could be because they don’t have one, or their former employer has closed down or there’s no contact information for them any longer.
Or it could be that the employer is unable to ascertain the information from the other referee which is needed in order for the candidate to pass the safer recruitment checks.
In these circumstances employers need to consider applying for a character reference in the absence of the employer’s reference.
The character reference can be someone they have known in a professional capacity, ie Accountant, Teacher, Doctor, Police etc or from a recognised association/team, such as a church, or the Girl Guides, football club etc.
They need to know them for more than 3 years. The reference must also ask about their suitability to work with children, so the referee needs to have seen them work with children. It’s very important to use a template that will ask the right questions and will hopefully mean you get a reference back a lot sooner.
If you have concerns about your recruitment processes, do get in touch. We can help with all aspects of recruitment, including safer recruitment.
Tel: 0843 176 0043 or Email: hello@specialisedhr.co.uk.
Visit us: www.specialisedhr.co.uk.