Safeguarding...

SAFEGUARDING  - Ensuring your confidence

Do you worry about who will turn up when you book agency staff?

Do you wish that you felt more certain about the checks that had been completed on the people coming to work in your school or nursery?

Would it help to see a picture of them before they arrive?

Safeguarding is a hot topic in the Education & Childcare industry and we take it very seriously. We operate stringent Safer Recruitment Practices and we share this information with our clients via our secure website. After all, the safety of the children in your care is always the top priority.

OUR SECURE WEBSITE GIVES YOU CONFIDENCE

All our clients get secure login details for our website - this allows you as a customer to view a photograph and all the pre-employment checks completed for each and every member of staff we send you.

We'd be happy to show you a demo of our system just call us on 0845 2266 569 or click here to email us anytime.



RECRUITMENT & VETTING CHECKS

We make sure all our checks are complete and clear before we place a candidate out to work. We have summarised our checks below, so read on if you want to know the steps we take before placing a candidate with you.

1) Application Form and Interview
From our detailed application form and interview process, we discover information about previous employment, obtaining explanations for any gaps in employment. We also check with the school or local authority at which the candidate was most recently employed, to confirm details of their employment and their reasons for leaving.

2) Health & Medical Fitness
A medical fitness questionnaire forms part of our application form. We satisfy ourselves that individuals have the appropriate level of physical and mental fitness before an appointment or offer of work is confirmed.

3) Policies & practice conveyed to all candidates
Equal Opportunities Policy:- all candidates are advised of their obligations to the children in the schools in which we send them, to treat them equally and fairly. We are also and equal opportunities employer.
Recruitment of Ex Offenders Policy:- all candidates are advised that criminal convictions cannot be treated as 'spent' when working in childcare or education and our candidates are required to declare all convictions or cautions, so that we can make safer recruitment decisions. If you are interested in how we make those recruitment decisions, feel free to call us at any time.
Health & Safety Policy:- all candidates are advised to join a Union, and consultants at Simply Supply make regular visits to our client schools to ensure safe working environments. We advise our supply staff to make sure that they familiarise themselves with the schools H&S policy and comply with it at all times. Advice is also given to our staff on how to ensure safe working practices for both themselves and the children in their care.

4) Identity Checks
Original photo ID is checked, we ask to see an original passport or driving licence plus birth certificate. Photographs of all candidates can be viewed on our secure website which you will be given access to if you become a client. This assures our schools and nurseries that the person who turns up to work IS the person that we have registered at our office. Candidates are also asked to provide an original and recent utility bill to validate the address on their ID.

5) Right to work in the UK
This is checked through viewing a current and original passport, and Portsmouth Immigration assist us with any queries we have on a candidate's eligibility to work in the UK.

6) List 99 checks
List 99 checks are completed on all candidates. These checks reveal whether the candidate is barred from working with children. ISA checks will be completed on all staff from July 2010. Please see below.

7) Criminal Records Bureau CRB Checks
An Enhanced Level CRB checks are completed on all of our supply staff. Simply Supply are a registered CRB body so we do not have to rely on a third party umbrella company.

8) Academic and Professional Qualifications
We view original certificates of qualifications for all of our candidates, and when placing teachers out to work, we check Qualified Teacher Status, General Teaching Council registration and that Induction has been completed for teachers qualifying after May 1999.

9) References
References are used to check the below information:

  • details of the applicant's current post
  • salary
  • sickness record
  • performance history
  • conduct
  • professionalism of the candidate
  • subject knowledge
  • behaviour management
  • general character
  • previous employment history
  • referee's relationship with the candidate
  • whether that the candidate is suitable to work with children
  • any disciplinary procedures the applicant has been subject to

We take up a minimum of three written and recent work related references. Open references or testimonials provided by the candidate are verified. We do not accept agreed references.

10) Appraisals
Finally, although not part of the pre-employment checks, appraisals are still an important part of our safeguarding policy. We receive regular verbal feedback on each of our candidates from our clients once they have worked, we also provide our clients with a quick and easy appraisal form which can be accessed online, this allows us to continuously assess our candidates and assist or advise them if necessary. It allows us to gain a better understanding of their capabilities and make better matches to work assignments for them.

We take Pre-Employment checks very seriously and if we have any doubts about someone's suitability to work we will not offer them to a school until the reason for doubt has been thoroughly investigated. We make decisions not to recruit people who do not satisfy all of our pre-employment checks at any stage of the checking process.

If you have any questions about our procedures please don't hesitate in contacting us on 0845 2266 569 or email emma@simplysupply.co.uk.