As employers we have a responsibility to make sure that we are doing all we can to ensure that the people we recruit are the right fit for their roles. Part of this is making sure that our staff are safe to work with children, young people and vulnerable adults. This is especially important for those who visit families, host events at churches or other places or are able to access information about these people.
For more information please refer to the Safer Recruitment Policy
To help you when you are recruiting a new person into the organisation we have provided you with some top tips:
- Read through completed application forms - when someone completes an application form there are a few questions at the bottom under the heading 'Additional Information'. Some of these questions link to Safeguarding and give people a chance to declare anything we may need to know about including convictions and restrictions of working with children. It is really important that you read these answers and raise any concerns.
- Don't recruit alone - shortlisting and interviewing should never be done by only one person. Ideally, you would have three people performing these processes but there must be no less than two people. This is to prevent things being missed and to ensure that decisions are discussed by more than one staff member.
- Question gaps - there is a space on the application form where candidates can tell us about any gaps in their employment. If you have questions about what they have completed or they haven't said what they were doing in those gaps, it is important to question it to make a more informed decision. This would usually take place at an interview so is only relevant for those who are shortlisted.
- Meet face to face - it is a good idea to try and meet people face to face for interviews as you can pick up on body language as well as what a person is saying. We know that this isn't always achievable so, in this case it is very important to meet the successful candidate on or before their first day in post to carry out a right to work check. More information can be found here. If there are restrictions to you being able to meet in person, it may be possible for someone who lives more local to you to do this on your behalf but you do need to arrange this.
- Keep interview notes - everyone who is interviewing should make notes which should then be uploaded to the database. It is important that this happens in case there is anything that comes up and an employee says that they told us about things in an interview. We need to have a written record to show what was said in the interview. Interview notes can be uploaded to the job itself for those who are not successful.
- Help with checks - there are some things that need to happen before a person can start their employment with us. We need to have received three (but at least two) completed references that give us a picture of what that person is like. The other is that the new starter needs to have completed a background check (DBS/ PVG/ AccessNI). It is essential that these are completed before the person starts working with us and is part of our due diligence as an employer. It would be great for you to reiterate the importance of these with people during interviews or when calling to make a job offer. If the disclosure check is delayed please speak to People and Culture and we will advise you in what steps you can take.
- Complete training - there is a Safer Recruitment training course available through Educare. Information on how to access that is here. Please note that this course is geared towards an educational setting so some principles may be slightly different. We recommend that if you are involved with lots of recruitment you complete this course.
If you have any questions in regards to any of this information, please reach out to People and Culture and we will be happy to help.