3. Recruitment and selection

The following rigorous arrangements apply to all posts where an employee, member or volunteer will be working with children or adults at risk in an unsupervised manner, or who are responsible for recruiting to such posts.

Where any of the following procedures have not been completed, an employee, member or volunteer working with children must be restricted such that, at all times, they are supervised by someone who has had an enhanced check.

Staff recruited prior to the establishment of the DBS (and CRB) have all since been checked.

3.1. Recruitment information

When a post is to be advertised, the manager must make it clear to Human Resources on the Request for Resources form if this post has unsupervised access to children, young people or adults at risk to ensure that the proper checks are made (the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 allows for disclosure of all criminal convictions for such posts).

The recruitment information will make it clear where applicants must declare all criminal convictions (not just unspent convictions) and that checks will be made on their suitability to work with children or vulnerable adults which will include written references and a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check at the appropriate level.

3.2. Disclosure and barring service

The council’s Human Resources Team will conduct the required checks with the DBS prior to the commencement of employment. These will be conducted for any new member of staff whose post requires a check unless the member of staff has registered with the DBS Update Service in which case an online check can be made on their current status. Checks will also be made for volunteers – someone who is engaged in an activity on behalf of the council and is unpaid. These checks are free of charge.

If the DBS check discloses any information about previous convictions, offences, etc., the HR Team will contact the Line Manager and together will assess the relevance of this information to the successful performance of the post and will make a recruitment decision. It is important to note that the council will not discriminate unfairly against the applicant on the basis of information derived from a disclosure. Only those offences that are relevant to the role will be considered in assessing an individual’s suitability for the post. The existence of a criminal record will not automatically render an applicant unsuitable. However, the safety of vulnerable individuals is paramount and offences involving drugs, sex, violence or dishonesty will be examined very seriously.

If the DBS check does not disclose any information, the line manager will be informed that the individual has been cleared to commence employment. Work should not be undertaken until a satisfactory check has been completed. However, it is recognised that occasionally it may be necessary for this to occur. DBS disclosures will be in line with the council’s policy.

3.3. Applications

All staff who will have unsupervised access to children, young people or adults at risk must complete, in full, a Council job application form, including full personal details. This must show information about all past employment and relevant voluntary work and detail gaps in employment.

3.4. Interview

All interviews will be carried out according to standard procedures and by fully trained staff using standard templates.

All interviews will be carried out according to the guidance in the Safeguarding Partnership Key Employment Standards. The general principles include:

• A minimum of two interviewers
• Interviews must always be held face to face where possible
• Comprehensive notes taken
• Interviews to explore issues specific to safeguarding including probing and exploring any gaps in employment history.

Values based (Warner) interview questions will be used as appropriate. Details of what these entail and when they should be used are included in the above employment standards.

3.5. References

Two written references must always be obtained. These should include the applicant’s most recent employer plus the most recent organisation/person for whom the applicant provided services involving access to children and/or adults at risk. References must always be provided on the standard Reference Form or on headed/company stamped paper. “To whom it may concern” references will not be accepted.

The reference request must make it clear that this person is applying for a job with unsupervised access to children and/or adults at risk of abuse (or that they will be recruiting people to work with these groups) and ask the referee is there is any known reason why the person should not be employed in such a capacity. If there is any doubt about the written response, the referee should be contacted by phone and asked the same question. Full notes must be made of any oral response, signed and dated by the person requesting the information. The Human Resources Team will conduct this procedure.

3.6. Offer of employment (paid or unpaid)

Any offer of employment must be subject to receipt of references and checks that are satisfactory to the council.

If the manager wants the person to start work before the results of the above checks have been received, the employee or volunteer must be told that their duties will be restricted to accompanied access to children and/or adults at risk until satisfactory responses to the checks have been received, when their employment will be confirmed. Obviously, if the checks are unsatisfactory, employment will be terminated.

Checks should also be made at this stage as to what safeguarding training the employee has received in the past and at what level. This will determine the urgency of the need for training in the new role.

3.7. Data protection and confidentiality

Data protection principles must be followed. This means that:

• The information sought must be adequate, relevant to the purpose and not excessive.
• It must be fairly and lawfully processed.
• DBS checks must only be made once it has been decided to offer the person the post (Note: Candidates attending interview may be willing to give their permission for such checks to be made if they are successful, but DBS checks should only be conducted in respect of the successful person.)
• The information must not be retained for longer than necessary (Note: The DBS guidelines say 6 months after such time all documentation must be destroyed. A note may then be held on the personal file stating which checks were conducted, the date and that they were satisfactory.)
• The information must be kept confidential and accessed only by those who need to know.
• All media enquires will be handled by the council’s Communications Manager.
• The information must not be transferred to other people without the person’s permission unless required by a statutory body with the authority to request it.

The council fully endorses the principle that the welfare of children, young people and adults at risk overrides the obligations of confidence held to others.