The Department for Education Guidance Document Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment in Education sets out best practice in the recruitment of school staff.
www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/Children/safeguards_policy.cfm
Safer practice in recruitment means thinking about and including child protection and safeguarding issues at every stage of the process.
It starts with the process of planning and, where the post is advertised, ensuring that the advertisement makes clear the organisation's commitment to safeguarding children. It's about a uniform and thorough process of obtaining, collating, analysing, and evaluating information from and about applicants, including:
- Having an explicit written recruitment and selection policy statement and procedures that comply with national and local guidance. The statement should detail all aspects of the process and should link to your child protection policy and procedures.
- Having a policy statement that incorporates an explicit statement about the organisation's commitment to providing a safe environment for children. An appropriate statement should be included in any model recruitment and selection policy.
- Ensuring the job description makes reference to the responsibility for safeguarding the welfare of children and that that is reflected in drawing up the person specification.
- Obtaining and scrutinising comprehensive information from applicants and taking up and satisfactorily resolving any discrepancies or anomalies.
- Verifying identity
- Checking that an applicant has any academic or vocational qualifications claimed
- Checking his/her previous employment history and experience, and that s/he has the health and physical capacity for the job.
- Obtaining independent professional and character references that answer specific questions to help assess an applicant's suitability to work with children
- A face to face interview that explores the candidate's suitability to work with children
- A mandatory Enhanced DBS Disclosure and check against the ISA barred list for children
The School's Safer Recruitment Statement
All advertisements and recruitment materials / letters should include a statement about the School's commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, plus reference for the need for the successful candidate to have an enhanced Disclosure application via the Disclosure & Barring Service.
Sample Statement:
"XX School is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. The post is subject to an enhanced Disclosure application to the Disclosure & Barring Service and check against the ISA barred list for Children."
The School's Safer Recruitment Statement should be included in
- Publicity materials
- Recruitment websites
- Advertisements
- Candidate information packs
- Person specifications
- Job descriptions
- Induction training
Important Note
It is crucial to remember that you cannot rely solely on criminal record and ISA Barred List checks to screen out unsuitable applicants. Those checks are an essential safeguard, but they will only pick up the small percentage of abusers who have been convicted, or have come to the attention of the police, or who have been listed. The majority of individuals who are unsuited to working with children will not have any previous convictions and will not appear on the ISA Barred List.
Model Safer Recruitment Interview Questions
A set of model safer recruitment interview questions can be accessed here.