All agencies and organisations whose staff, volunteers or carers work closely with children should have policies and procedures in place to deter those who are unsuitable to work with children.
It is an offence to knowingly employ a person who has been barred by the Independent Safeguarding Authority from working in posts which involve caring for or treating children.
Common features of recruitment and selection should include:
- Adverts contain a statement of the organisation’s commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children
- The job/role description and person specification reflect the applicant’s responsibility to safeguard and promote the welfare of children.
- Use of a standard application form for all staff vacancies which asks for:
- full personal information, including any former names by which the person has been known in the past
- A full employment history, both paid and voluntary since leaving school in chronological order plus reasons for leaving
- Details of any academic and/or vocational qualifications
- A declaration that the person has no convictions, cautions, or having been bound-over.
- Details of references
- Enhanced Criminal Record Bureau checks;
- Checks of professional registers, if relevant;
- Ensuring that when a positive CRB check is received decisions are made at the highest level and are handled consistently.
- Recruitment and selection is undertaken by those who have been trained in safer recruitment
- All short listed applicants have face to face interviews;
- Asking candidates to confirm identity through official documents;
- Verifying the authenticity of qualifications and references directly;
- Seeking a full employment history for prospective staff members and foster carers and reserving the right to approach any previous employer; checking with former employers the reason why employment ended; identifying any gaps or inconsistencies and seeking an explanation;
- Making appointments only after references are obtained and checked. Referees should be reminded that references should contain no material mis-statement or omission relevant to the suitability of the applicant;
- New recruits should not commence work until all checks have been completed.
- Making all new appointments to work with children (including internal transfers) subject to a probationary period.
Interviewers should be prepared to explore with candidates their attitudes towards children and child care, their perceptions about the boundaries of acceptable behaviour towards children, and pose questions about their motivation to work with children.
The following criteria apply when deciding whether an Enhanced Disclosure is required:
- Has unsupervised access to children or young people under the age of 18 years regardless of regularity or duration
- Has supervised access to children on a regular basis
- Is based within a setting regularly occupied by children (regardless of direct contact or nature of role) e.g. nursery, youth organisation, club, park, faith organisation etc. unless the presence is exclusively before or after children are on the premises or site
- Visits domestic residences where children are, or may be present, or has indirect contact with children via the telephone or Internet
- Has significant access to highly sensitive personal details relating to children.
The criteria apply to all permanent or temporary, casual, supply, voluntary or unpaid posts.
CRB checks do not detail offences committed abroad. For overseas applicants a Certificate of Good Conduct from their home police force or embassy must be requested.
Even the most careful selection process cannot identify all those who may pose a risk to children. It is important therefore that all agencies and organisations whose staff, volunteers or carers work closely with children create a safe working environment by:
- having easily accessible and publicised child protection policies and procedures;
- all staff and volunteers undertaking training that equips them with the knowledge and skills necessary to carry out their responsibilities for child protection that is kept up to date by regular refresher training;
- children, parents, staff and volunteers knowing the acceptable boundaries of behaviour;
- children, parents, staff and volunteers knowing to whom and how to report any concerns they have;
- following the multi agency procedures for dealing with allegations of abuse against members of staff or volunteers
Post-employment management and supervision should always be alert to indicators of abusive behaviour. Any concerns or allegations should be dealt with under the procedures for managing allegations against people who work with children (Section 9) and any disqualification from working with children instigated under the procedure relevant to the agency.
Ref:
Safeguarding Children and Safer Recruitment in Education 2006
