Safer Recruitment: a self-evaluation tool
Introduction
Providing care and support is highly skilled work, which demands high levels of trust and responsibility, with some people being more suitable than others. Staff can hold considerable power over people experiencing care and need to be able to be trusted to use this authority and responsibility well. Best practice recruitment approaches are crucial to ensure that the right people, with suitable skills and values, are recruited. Ensuring that the skills, values and attitudes of potential employees match the post being recruited to is an important element of building a strong, stable staff team which supports better outcomes for people.
Safer Recruitment Through Better Recruitment
Safer recruitment involves different agencies and pieces of legislation. Although it is one of our ‘core assurances’ that we check on every inspection, there are areas that we do not regulate ourselves. This self-evaluation tool is designed to help in your commitment to keep people safe, by ensuring staff are recruited appropriately and in line with current guidance. It will help you to evaluate how well you are doing to support all areas of safer recruitment in your service(s) and identify any areas where you want to improve. Appendix 1 includes a selection of web links designed to support you in accessing the most current guidance across key areas of practice. Please note that these links are illustrative rather than exhaustive, and additional resources may be available.
In social care there is a broad range of employer types and various staff roles with differing responsibilities. Safer recruitment practice is just as vital to ensuring people’s safety regardless of the type of employer, service or job role. Each completed self-evaluation will look different depending on these factors and some areas of the tool will be more relevant to some employers than to others.
Some of the principles and standards in the Health and Social Care Standards and the SSSC Codes of Practice for Employers outline the recruitment expectations across social care and have been used to support the creation of this self-evaluation. The Care Inspectorate Quality Improvement Frameworks have also been used. We suggest you refer to these documents as well as the other areas of guidance when completing your self-evaluation.
Health and Social Care Principles and Standards
Compassion: “My care is provided by people who understand and are sensitive to my needs and my wishes.”
Responsive Care and Support: “I experience consistency in who provides my care and support and in how it is provided.”
Wellbeing: “I feel safe and I am protected from neglect, abuse or avoidable harm.”
4.24 I am confident that people who support and care for me have been appropriately and safely recruited.
4.9 I can take part in recruiting and training people if possible.
SSSC Codes of Practice for Employers of Social Service Workers
1.2 Follow relevant safe recruitment guidance to check criminal records, registers and gaps in employment as part of assessing whether a person can carry out the duties of the job.
1.3 Request and provide accurate and appropriate information or references relating to a person’s suitability to work in a specified role.
1.4 Give workers clear information about their roles and responsibilities, relevant legislation and the policies and procedures they must follow in their work.
The self-evaluation process
Self-evaluation is a continuous process that can lead to improvements over time. It is best done by those who know the service well. You should therefore find ways to include people experiencing care, their families, staff, or other stakeholders/professionals as appropriate. Successful self-evaluation does not mean showing you are getting everything right all of the time, it is about recognising the impact of your service, identifying where it can be better and acting on this. The Care Inspectorate self-evaluation toolkit can provide further guidance and ideas.
The self-evaluation process is made up of three key questions:
How are we doing? This helps you to evaluate and understand the impact of your service on the lives of people experiencing care.
How do we know? This helps you consider what evidence you have to show how good you are. You should use the best ways to gather this evidence for each section. This could include:
quality assurance and oversight activities
reviewing documentation that evidences how decisions are made
benchmarking against best practice guidance
the views of people experiencing care and their families
the views of other stakeholders or professionals that interact with your service.
What are we going to do now?
This helps you to make specific plans to improve based on the first two questions, including changes you plan to test out and specific actions you are going to take.
You are not completing this self-evaluation tool for the Care Inspectorate, and we do not expect you to return it to us. This is part of your wider evaluation and improvement plan for your service and how you support improved outcomes for people. Acting on the results of this self-evaluation tool will contribute to ensuring the ongoing safety of people experiencing care.
We hope this tool will help you to identify key areas of your recruitment practice that can be improved.
Appendix 1 - links to relevant guidance:
Joint SSSC and Care Inspectorate guidance to support employers to safely recruit suitable staff for a range of roles involved in providing care and support.
Gov.UK guidance developed to help adult social care providers decide whether to recruit care workers and senior care workers from overseas, with guidance on how to do so in an ethical and responsible manner.
Gov.Scot website for information and guidance on the PVG scheme and applying for disclosure checks.
Code of Practice for International Recruitment-Health and Social Care Gov.Scot publication - organisations must adhere to the ‘Code of Practice’ when undertaking international recruitment activity to appoint health and social care personnel.
Gov.UK guidance explaining what employers must do to prevent illegal working in the UK by carrying out right to work checks before employing people to make sure they are allowed to work.
Gov.UK guidance for student and worker sponsors, including full policy guidance, using the sponsorship management system and how to get help.
This toolkit from SSSC helps employers identify and embed their values in the recruitment and selection process, with links to a range of tools produced by ‘Skills for Care’.
A Guide for employers of 16–17-year-olds in social care (Scotland) Partnership between the SSSC, Care Inspectorate, Skills Development Scotland, Scottish Care and Coalition of Care and Support Providers in Scotland (CCPS). Case studies and testimonies both for employers and individuals experiencing care. Practical advice and suggestions for the recruitment and onboarding of young people into social care roles. This includes the application process, interviews, pre-employment communication, mentoring, ethical and legal considerations.