Safer recruitment

Our recruitment and selection procedures are designed to safeguard the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Applying

Before applying for a job working with children, young people or vulnerable adults, you should read the following:

• you must provide a full employment history on your application form, including any periods of unemployment or travelling with dates (to the nearest month), and the names and addresses of previous employers
• if you've worked through an agency, then you must include the agency's details - along with the details of your workplace - under 'employer details', and we'll approach both for a reference
• if you don’t give a full employment history, you won’t be considered
• we’ll confirm your employment history with your current and past employers – and we’ll ask about any disciplinary offences (including expired ones)

How does the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act apply?

Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (2013 and 2020) if you’re applying to work with children, young people or vulnerable adults you must state all criminal convictions and the dates you received them.

If you don't, you'll be disqualified and won't get the job. Once you’re working with us, if we discover a criminal conviction you didn’t tell us about, you could be dismissed immediately without notice.

• find out more about working for us if you've got a criminal record

After we've made a conditional job offer

• if you’re successful in the selection process, we’ll do a DBS check to identify that you are a suitable person to work with children – these checks will be renewed every three years
• if you’ve been disqualified from working with children, and you knowingly apply for, or accept, any work in a ‘regulated position’ (classified as working with children), you’ll be guilty of an offence under the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000
• at this stage in the recruitment process we'll need to confirm your identify by seeing your birth certificate, passport marriage or divorce certificate, and we'll verify your educational and professional qualifications
• we’ll only offer you a job if you pass the checks – you won’t have any unsupervised access to children until we’ve completed them
• all local government jobs have a six-month probation period.