Safer Recruitment Policy | Living In Full Bloom

Safer Recruitment Policy and Procedure

Links to other relevant policies:

Safeguarding and Child Protection Policy

Equality and Diversity

Living In Full Bloom is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people. This policy sets out the safer recruitment procedures that Living In Full Bloom will follow when recruiting all staff in order to ensure the very best and safe provision for our students.

Introduction and statutory requirements

Section 175 of the Education Act 2002 requires Governing Bodies of maintained schools, academies and FE colleges to make arrangements to ensure that their functions are carried out with a view to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and regulations made under Section 157 of that Act state that Proprietors of Independent schools, which include Academies and Free schools, must make arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of pupils. Although Living In Full Bloom isn’t a school or college, Living In Full Bloom aims to adopt most of the same safe guarding structures to ensure the safety of young people

Purpose of the safer recruitment

Living In Full Bloom is committed to safeguarding all children and, as part of that, the purpose of safer recruitment is ultimately to:

Deter. From the beginning of the recruitment process, it is important to send the right message – that the organisation has a rigorous recruitment process and does not tolerate any form of abuse. Wording in adverts and recruitment information must aim to deter potential abusers.
Identify and Reject. It will not always be possible to deter potential abusers. Therefore, careful planning for the interview and selection stage, in terms of asking the right questions, setting appropriate tasks and obtaining the right information can assist in finding out who is suitable for the role and who is not.
Prevent and Reject. There are no guarantees that even the most robust safer recruitment process will prevent an inappropriate appointment. However, this does not mean it is too late to act. Ensuring that comprehensive induction processes are in place, together with appropriate policies and procedures, raising awareness through staff training and generally developing and maintaining a safe culture within the organisation will all help to prevent abuse or identify potential abusers.

The intention of this policy is to ensure that all stages of the recruitment process contain measures to deter, identify, prevent and reject unsuitable people from gaining access to young people within the organisation. The policy and the practical implementation of recruitment and selection processes also aim to meet all legislative requirements any statutory or other guidance that may from time to time be issued in order to keep children safe and carry out safer recruitment in education, as well as principles of general good practice.

‘Regulated activity’ and disclosure and barring service checks

Living In Full Bloom has specific responsibility for carrying out appropriate pre-employment checks, including Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) with Barred List check, when recruiting paid employees and workers. Other people coming into the organisation (e.g. volunteers, including Visitors) with access to Children may not be in regulated activity - if they are ‘adequately supervised’ when carrying out an activity with children which would be regulated activity when unsupervised.
Living In Full Bloom is responsible for continuing vigilance in relation to staff, workers and any others coming onto the premises, and/or with access or opportunity for contact with the Children, at all times.
Living In Full Bloom will act in accordance with the statutory requirements relating to ‘Regulated Activity’ (RA) relating to children.
All employees of Living In Full Bloom are in Regulated Activity and therefore an Enhanced DBS with Barred List check will be carried out for every employee. This will also normally include Agency supply workers.
For visiting staff/workers, such as supply workers in RA, it is for the providing organisation to carry out checks – Living In Full Bloom then obtains written confirmation for the Single Central Register (SCR).
Supervised volunteers, inc. parents, etc. are not normally in RA. However, Living In Full Bloom will ensure they are ‘adequately supervised’ or have an enhanced DBS in accordance with statutory supervision guidance published by the DfE.
Contractors carrying out work of a temporary or occasional nature, e.g. maintenance (but not teaching, training etc), are not normally in RA. However, for long-term regular contracted work a decision needs to be made about whether individuals have the opportunity for contact (e.g. in a similar way to school site staff) and can be deemed to be in RA. Decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis, on advice from the Designated Safeguarding Leads, taking into account the relevant and prevailing circumstances at the time. Generally, contractors not checked by their employers must be supervised.
As trainee’s, students on placement can undertake regulated activity, sometimes unsupervised, an enhanced DBS certificate and barred list check will be obtained from the provider.
Barred List checks by the DBS may be required on some people who supervise a child under the age of 16 on a work experience placement. Consideration would need to be given to the specific circumstances of the work experience, in particular whether the person providing the teaching/training/instruction/supervision to the child will be unsupervised and providing the teaching/training/instruction frequently (at least once a week or on more than three days in a 30-day period, or overnight). If the person working with the child is unsupervised and the same person is in frequent contact with the child, the work is likely to be Regulated Activity. If so, the employer providing the work experience will be asked to ensure that the person providing the instruction or training is not a barred person.
Work Experience checks are carried out by the local authority or school on behalf of Living In Full Bloom. There is no entitlement to request DBS or Barred List checks on Visitors (e.g. children’s relatives or other visitors attending a sports day). A professional judgement will be made at the relevant time with advice from the DSLs, about the need to escort or supervise them.
Living In Full Bloom will take appropriate steps to ensure that all those employees, paid workers and any others deemed to be in regulated activity, are subject to the highest level of checks including, for new recruits, a full Enhanced DBS with Barred List Check, or as required at the time of recruitment.
For any persons deemed not to be in regulated activity, steps will be taken to ensure that adequate supervision and/or protocols to ensure the safety of Children at all times, are in place, in accordance with statutory guidance and general good practice. An appropriate level of checks, in addition to the requirements set out above, will be carried out in relation to all new recruits.

Things to ensure when recruiting:

Consider safeguarding at every stage of the process; planning, advertising, interview and appointment.
Ensure the job description includes the responsibility for safeguarding children.
Ensuring the person specification includes reference to suitability to work with children.
Checking the application form including employment/ experience history and ensuring that any gaps/ anomalies are satisfactorily explained.
Ensure receipt of independent professional references, which address specific questions.
Face to face interview. Interview panel to have received appropriate safer recruitment training
Verification of candidate’s identity and right to work in the UK
Verification of academic qualifications (and/ or professional body status) (original copies required).
Medical clearance to establish mental and physical fitness for the role
Enhanced DBS disclosure and Children’s Barred List on staff and volunteers who are undertaking ‘regulated activity and where relevant an overseas criminal record check.
Teacher status checks – Qualified Teacher status; Induction Standards; Prohibition from teaching; Disqualification Under Childcare Act (2009

Shortlisting

Assess each application against the job’s essential and desirable criteria.

Identify applicants that meet the criteria to invite for interview and those that should be rejected.

Important

Check all applications carefully for:

Incomplete or missing information
Unexplained gaps in employment
Repeated or frequent job changes
Anomalies or discrepancies in the information provided

Make a note of any gaps or anomalies that you want to explore with the candidate at interview.

Offering employment and pre-employment checks

Once you have your preferred candidate, you must make a conditional offer of employment. Normally this is done verbally and then confirmed in writing.

To comply with Keeping Children Safe in Education, all offers of employment must be conditional upon satisfactory completion of pre-employment checks. Even verbal offers are legally binding so make sure you tell the candidate that the offer is conditional on satisfactory completion of all pre-employment checks including references, health and criminal record checking.

When making a verbal offer, discuss:

a possible starting date (find out how much notice they need to give to their current employer)
starting salary, where there is room for negotiation
when they can provide any missing information or documentation that they didn’t bring to the interview, such as proof of identity, right to work, qualification certificates etc

Once a verbal offer has been made, follow up promptly with a conditional offer letter.

How to conduct pre-employment checks

No-one should start work before all pre-employment checks are complete and must not start until at least their identity and right to work in the UK has been verified.

A candidate can start prior to the receipt of a DBS check, however they should not be left unsupervised and a Risk Assessment must be carried out, to consider the risks and any measures that can be put in place to mitigate those risks.

Where the person is eligible to be checked against the Children’s Barred List (or, exceptionally in Residential Special Schools, the Adults Barred List), they must not start work until this check has been carried out. This can be done pending receipt of the DBS check.

Induction

Guidance on what new staff need to know

You have put a great deal of time and resource into recruiting your new starter, you now have a critical role in delivering an effective induction to make sure they settle in quickly, understand the job and what is expected of them.

Effective induction can lay important foundations for a productive relationship and is critical to retention and high standards of performance.

All new staff including volunteers, supply staff, students and contractors should be inducted to Living In Full Bloom and their role. The induction should be tailored to the individual and their role but should always include their responsibilities for safeguarding and protecting children, and the standards of conduct and behaviour expected of them.

Students on placement should also be given a wider induction to Living In Full Bloom.

The induction programme is a first important stage in the employee’s personal development plan.

It is good practice to assign a buddy (or ‘sponsor/mentor’) to every new starter. If possible this should be a person who they will not be working with directly, but who can undertake some of the induction activities, as well as generally make the new employee feel welcome.

Child Protection

All staff have a responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn.

All staff members should be aware of systems within Living In Full Bloom which support safeguarding and these should be explained to them as part of their induction. This includes: the child protection policy: the Code of Conduct and the role of the designated safeguarding lead.

All staff members should also receive appropriate child protection training which is regularly updated. Staff with designated lead responsibility for child protection should have refresher training every two years.

The training should include:

recognition of potential abuse;
responding appropriately to concerns;
recording and effective record keeping;
reporting concerns.

Policies and procedures

Staff should be provided with access to the policies and procedures, including the code of conduct, and key policies should be explained to them e.g. Whistleblowing, Sickness/Absence, Appraisals and Performance Management, Social Media Policy, Dignity at Work (anti-bullying), Acceptable use of ICT.

Keeping a record of the induction

An induction programme should be formal and structured with a record kept of the plan. Brief notes should be kept of review meetings and activities. It is particularly important to keep a note of any actions and outcomes agreed at the review meetings for future reference.

Where staff or volunteers are being provided with vital information (e.g. Child Protection policy), they should sign to confirm that they have received this and that they agree to work within the school's policies and procedures. This makes it easier to deal with any inappropriate or unsuitable behaviour, should any arise.