Safer Recruitment Policy

Sense Education’s service in the education sector is focused on fostering safer hiring practices. We comply and go beyond the relevant legislation and statutory guidance set out by the Department of Education and Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSiE).

To ensure our workers documentation is easily accessible and prepared for review, we have a dedicated internal compliance team, all of whom are Safer Recruitment trained.

We interview and assess the suitability of each of our candidates in person, and run the following checks:

Right to Work in the United Kingdom – We comply with immigration and recruitment industry legislation, and carry out this check in line with best practice and equality law. We conduct a manual right to work check and inspect all original documents that attest to a candidate’s eligibility to work in the UK, whether they are from both inside and outside the UK. We make and keep clear copies of the documents in full. For online right to work checks we follow the steps set out by the Home Office and keep the copies on record. 

Identity and Proof of Address – In addition to the right to work documents we also require 3 original documents, one to confirm their identity and two to prove their address. This complies with the Enhanced DBS ID verification criteria and accepted documents include an current original photo ID such as a passport, new style driver’s licence, National Identity card, utility bills, a recent three-month bank statement, and a government document/letter which includes the work seeker’s national insurance number.

References – In accordance with Regulation 22 of the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Business Regulations 2003, and the terms of the CCS Supply Teacher Framework, we seek professional and job references that date back at least four years, with one reference being from their current employer. The references might include a recommendation from a former employer, a teaching placement, a student, a tutor or one-on-one reference, or a personal character reference from non-family members and ideally a professional email account. We verify all references where the candidate has worked with children via email or telephone. 

Enhanced DBS Disclosure – Every candidate is required to have an Enhanced DBS check. If they already have a valid DBS issued by another registered organisation, we view and take copies of the original certificate and verify that it is listed on the DBS Update Service. We record the check on file. We require a new DBS check if the DBS is not subscribed to the update service.

DBS Update Service – We make sure that all of our candidates are signed up for the DBS Update Service, which enables the school to do a current DBS check at any time. We check this ourselves four times per year.

Overseas Police Checks – Candidates who have lived or worked abroad for six months or more must provide an overseas police check, in accordance with the government guidelines particular to each country. If this is unable to be provided then we accept a statement of good conduct from the candidates previous employer within the relevant country.

Online Searches/Social Media Checks – In accordance with the updated KCSIE 221 guidance, online searches are conducted on candidates as part of our due diligence checks. All candidates are informed prior to the searches being conducted that this is part of our recruitment process.

Qualifications and ECTs/NQTs – We obtain original copies of qualifications that are available to our clients upon request. We check the qualifications and the qualified teacher status on the Teacher Regulation Agency online portal. We verify that overseas-trained teachers possess credentials regarded to be comparable to a British teaching degree or PGCE, and we also sight all original certificates.

Check a Teacher Record/Education workforce – We undertake checks via the DFE check a teacher online service to check status’s and to ensure that qualification certificates are genuine. We also check that there are no prohibitions or disciplinary sanctions imposed that would prevent them from working in education. 

Fitness to Teach – To ensure compliance with the Education Health Standards Regulations 2002, we ask all candidates to advise us of health or disability issues relevant to the role. We check the candidate is fit to teach prior to placement in a school.

2006 Childcare Disqualification Act – At the start of the application process, each candidate answers and signs a disqualifying question. We carry out appropriate checks to ensure candidates are not disqualified from teaching prior to working with them. 

Safeguarding Training – All of our employees undertake a 3-hour online SEND specific child protection training from the NSPCC as part of our safeguarding training programme, and upon successful completion, they are awarded a certificate. They have one week to complete this training after beginning working with us.

KCSIE Policy – We ask all of our staff to read and become familiar with Section 1 of the KCSIE and Annex A. 

Continued Suitability – We conduct status and teacher record checks at least once a year to ensure candidates registered with Sense Education meet the safeguarding and suitability requirements. If a candidate hasn’t worked for us for 3-6 months, we conduct the checks and obtain additional references to cover the period. Where a candidate hasn’t worked with us for 6 months or more, the registration process will be repeated in full.