Safer recruitment

To select the right people for your sports club, activity or organisation, it’s essential to produce an application pack and any supporting information about your organisation.

This application pack and supporting information, should be made available to any person interested in applying for a role, whether it’s paid or voluntary. Information supplied during the application process will help when it comes to shortlisting applicants and identifying any concern that need following up. 

Who is eligible for a DBS check?

Only individuals in eligible posts or roles (e.g. which provide significant levels of responsibility for children) are eligible to be checked through the DBS. For further information about eligibility visit the DBS website and Enhanced DBS check. 

Self declaration

We have developed a self-declaration forms for sport and activity providers to use and develop your own version to suit your organisation's needs.

This form should state that failure to disclose unspent criminal convictions, including police cautions, children's social care investigations and disciplinary investigations, may result in their role being withdrawn from the club, organisation or event. It should capture relevant information about the person’s experience, qualifications and employment history, both for paid and voluntary roles.

Before recruiting to your chosen role, make sure you plan and prepare for the hiring process, so that your organisation's values and ethos is clear.

This is the first opportunity to set out that your organisation takes their safeguarding responsibilities seriously. 

Be clear that the post involves working with children, and that other relevant safer recruitment processes such as self-declaration, references, criminal records check will be undertaken during this process. This will hopefully discourage any potential candidates who are not suitable to work with children or adults at risk. 

What should be included in the hiring process?

Write a clear job role or job description 

A job or role description should describe the full range of tasks, duties and responsibilities within the role and helps everyone to understand the extent and nature of the role. This is essential in establishing whether the role is eligible for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.

Write a person specification 

This should describe the skills, values, experience and attributes that the successful candidate needs to carry out the role, such as:

• specific experience of working with children
• being child-centred
• required sport, or other, qualifications

Advertise the job or role 

Advertise or promote the role to attract the widest response and demonstrate an open recruitment process. This could be done through the club newsletters, website, notice boards (including online), local papers and job websites.

Choosing wisely and conducting an effective interview and selection process will help you to select the most suitable person for the role.

Here are some key points to include in your interview and induction process for your safer recruitment and selection procedures.

Interview the applicant

• ensure you have at least two people interview or meet with the applicant 
• check out any gaps in the application form, including any gaps in employment history
• ensure the applicant has the ability and commitment to meet the standards required to adhere to the safeguarding policy
• you may want to explore the applicant’s attitude to power, authority and discipline, and ask for a response to a problem faced in your club or organisation. This will assess their commitment to promoting good practice and their ability to communicate with children and young people

Verify identity, qualifications and experience

Take relevant steps to confirm the candidate’s identity. Request to see original copies of their ID, qualifications, experience and right to work in the UK.

Written references

It's important to obtain at least two written references, including the applicants last employer. Referees should include someone who can comment on the applicant’s previous work with children. Ideally, references should be sought on all shortlisted candidates and obtained before an interview takes place.

It is best practice to directly contact the references via telephone to confirm they gave the reference, it is an accurate reflection of the candidate and give them the opportunity to raise any concerns.

It's important to consider the following:

• be clear about whose responsibility this task is (local or club level or at national governing body or organisational level)
• take care to ensure that information from all sources is provided to those with responsibility for making a decision on the individual’s suitability for the role

For further information see our template reference form for positions working with children.

Social media and recruitment

Online checks are not a requirement of a safer recruitment process, although some organisations consider carrying out a search of shortlisted candidates for any information that is publicly available online.

The ICO have published information for anyone thinking about conducting online checks at Pre-employment vetting of candidates. 

Record recruitment decisions

Check thoroughly that the applicant has undergone the relevant pre-employment checks and risk assessment. References, ID, right to work, vetting check and self-disclosure should be recorded alongside the interview outcome and stored securely.

For further information, take a look at the NSPCC child protection records retention and storage guidelines.

Criminal records checks

Organisations should have clear guidelines to establish which roles are eligible for criminal records checks, and ensure that applicants for eligible posts comply. Information about previous criminal convictions or other concerns should be risk assessed.

The Disclosure and Barring Service provide criminal records checks for England and Wales. In Northern Ireland and Scotland these functions are provided by AccessNI and Disclosure Scotland respectively.

For further information about the criminal records check process, types of checks, eligibility and assessing and referring information please visit the relevant organisations' website.

• The Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) – England and Wales
• AccessNI – Northern Ireland
• Disclosure Scotland – Scotland

Eligibility

We advise providing space in the application for the person applying for the role to declare any relevant convictions or information, and give their consent for a criminal record check.

For further information about eligibility visit the links above to DBS, AccessNI or Disclosure Scotland. 

Risk assess information

If any concerning information comes up during the recruitment process, an appropriately experienced and trained person should carry out a risk assessment. This could be the person with lead safeguarding responsibility in the organisation.

Case management 

Establishing a case management group, or similar system, within your organisation can help to risk assess information returned from vetting checks and written references. It's important to not employ or deploy an individual until a risk assessment process is complete.

For help with the decision making process visit the Direct Gov website for Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) filtering guidance and see NACRO's Practical guidance on DBS filtering.

For further information, see our case management tool. This model provides guidance, templates and good practice examples which will help your organisation manage safeguarding cases more effectively.

Many sport national governing bodies, active partnerships and Local authorities have guidance and can provide support to help your club or activity to risk assess criminal records checks, as well as assisting with the vetting process.

It's important to maintain a culture of vigilance and support once your new recruit is in post. 

You can do this by giving your new starter an effective induction. This includes suitable and relevant training, supervision meetings, appraisals and organisational safeguarding culture guidance and resources.

All new recruits should go through an induction process as soon as possible. This process will introduce them to all important aspects of their new environment and role.

Key areas to cover in your induction process

Clubs and organisations should familiarise new recruits with the following:

• safeguarding policies and procedures
• codes of conduct
• constitution, rules and guidelines
• club membership registration
• roles and responsibilities of the post

Establish training needs

By looking at the individual needs of your new starter, and establishing what training might be useful, this will not only benefit the new recruit but also your club or organisation. Here are some things to consider:

• what training would be useful or required for the new recruit, based on their role and experience?
• has your new recruit recently undertaken adequate safeguarding training (if appropriate in line with any relevant national governing body requirements)? If not, they should do so as soon as possible and no later than 6 months after taking up their post

For further information on choosing the right safeguarding training for you will depend upon your role within sport, as well as your safeguarding experience and knowledge, see our choose the right training guidance.

Probationary and trial periods                         

Setting a probationary or trial period (usually 6 months) allows your organisation to review the post holder’s performance against the job description after this time.

Appointments shouldn't be made in isolation. Depending on the size of your organisation, people should be appointed by a panel, committee or executive committee, not by any individual member or members of the organisation or club. This makes sure the process is fair and unbiased.

Safer recruitment of coaches and staff from overseas

Most of the recruitment process can be carried out the same regardless of where the applicant comes from. However, there are a few challenges when considering an applicant from outside the UK.

Additional challenges for overseas recruitment

Technical qualifications - qualifications may not be the equivalent of the sports qualifications for the UK

Right to work checks - employers must check documents before employing anyone, to make sure they’re allowed to work. To learn more visit, the Gov.UK website for right to work checks guidance

Criminal records checks - challenges can come up when considering overseas applicants for roles that are eligible for criminal records checks. These challenges could include:

• absence of equivalent systems for holding and sharing criminal records information
• variations in the reliability of information and in its availability to UK agencies
• differences in criminal legislation, definitions and thresholds
• variations in GDPR, data protection and data sharing standards

What to do if you can’t check an applicant

If you can’t check the applicant to the level required for UK employment, your organisation should establish additional safeguards, these include:

• additional supervision and monitoring by staff who have been appropriately vetted
• updated safeguarding training to be undertaken
• explain what behaviours are expected by your organisation

Criminal records checks for overseas applicants

Undertaking a criminal records check will cover any period that the person has lived in the UK. In a small number of cases, a check on criminal records information from overseas is held by the DBS.

There isn’t a direct equivalent to the UK’s criminal records checking system in other countries. For details of what is available in each country and how to apply, visit: The Gov.UK website.

For further information about criminal record and vetting checks please visit:

• Disclosure and Barring Scheme (DBS) (England and Wales)
• Disclosure Scotland (Scotland)
• AccessNI (Northern Ireland)

Top tips for overseas recruiting

Here are a few tips for how to deal with the extra challenges of recruiting from overseas:

• take steps to check the applicant’s identity and legal entitlement to work
• follow guidance about accessing criminal records or equivalent checks from the relevant country
• contact the applicant’s home sport’s governing body or federation to check qualifications and find out if any safeguarding concerns or complaints have been raised and if disciplinary action was taken
• get written references from the applicant’s last employer and from someone who can give a reference of the applicant’s experience of working with children
• have a thorough induction process for new starters, including establishing the applicant's training needs and probationary period

Here are links to a variety of resources to support your sports club or activity when recruiting and vetting potential candidates.  

NSPCC Sport resources

• Making fair and safe decisions about memberships
• Lifeguards and vetting checks eligibility
• Resource library – safer recruitment
• Risk assessment in safer recruitment – NSPCC Sport training course

Wider NSPCC resources

• NSPCC Learning – safer recruitment
• Safer recruitment training courses

Other useful resources and websites

• Access Northern Ireland - for criminal record checks in Northern Ireland
• DBS checks in sport – guidance leaflets
• DBS eligibility for standard DBS checks – GOV.UK
• DBS eligibility for enhanced DBS checks – GOV.UK
• Helping employers make safer recruiting decisions – GOV.UK
• Independant review of the barring operations of the Disclosure and Barring service – GOV.UK
• NACRO recruiting safely and fairly – a practical guide to employing ex-offenders
• The FA's criminal records checks policy

Publications

• Towards safer organisations – adults who pose a risk to children in the workplace and implications for recruitment and selection. Erooga M, NSPCC, 2009
• Towards safer organisations II – using the perspectives of convicted sex offenders to inform organisational safeguarding of children. Erooga M, Allnock D and Telford P. NSPCC, 2012