Latest posts to Recruit!
The Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) has signed up to the Ban the Box campaign, committing to fair recruitment for people with criminal records. As a result, the REC will not ask questions about criminal records at the application stage of the recruitment process, but will ask the questions at a later stage. Later this […]
Christopher Stacey, co-director of Unlock, has written a blog for the Huffington Post questioning the use of enhanced DBS checks as the answer to Oxfam’s safeguarding problems. The blog is particularly important for organisations that use volunteers in their work, and is copied below. The original blog is available here. Of all the things in […]
Almost anyone can run a charity, but there are rules that mean some people with a criminal record are prevented from being able to unless they have clearance from the Charity Commission. With the rules changing this year, it’s important to get to grips with what they mean. There are over 11 million people in […]
From today, the 17th January 2018, basic criminal record checks can now be obtained directly from the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) This is a significant development for both people with criminal records and employers in England & Wales. Basic checks are a type of criminal record check that can be used by employers and […]
We were recently pointed towards a large cleaning company that had a question on its application form for a job cleaning commercial offices which stated: “Criminal Record o Yes o No” The question didn’t make it clear that an applicant doesn’t need to disclose any spent convictions when applying for a role covered by the […]
We’ve recently been contacted by an individual who wanted some advice following dismissal from his job because he didn’t disclose his unspent criminal record. The individual explained that on release from prison, over 15 years ago, he’d been told by his probation officer that his conviction would become ‘spent’ (under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act […]
We’ve recently worked on a case where a university had stated in a job description for a Lecturer in Criminology that: “The successful applicant will have to undergo a DBS check before an appointment can be made.” Although the job description didn’t specify what level of check, the university confirmed that they would be carrying […]
We’ve recently been advising a large motor manufacturer who was asking a misleading question on their online apprenticeship application form. It stated: “Have you any convictions, including both spent and unspent convictions under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974? If yes, please provide details.” We believed that the apprenticeship role being offered would be […]
We were contacted by an individual who was concerned that a question on an employer’s application form in respect of a job requiring an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service checks was misleading as it did not provide any guidance around ‘protected’ cautions and convictions. The question on the application form stated: “Criminal Convictions (see guidance […]
We’ve recently been involved in a case where a training provider offering vocational and online courses to apprentices was requesting an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check for an individual being employed as an account manager. The primary role of the account manager was to liaise with the training company’s current partners and to […]