Hi, see www.gov.uk/.../criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants

The application process for each country is detailed there. Plenty can be done on-line and are free or have a very small cost attached.

Where it is problematic/expensive, we have carried out a risk assesment to ascertain the risk of allowing the individual to work/volunteer in the school. This will ascertain if the individual can move freely around the school without as escort as we are unable to check for an overseas criminal record.

An escort is of course inconvenient, but maybe not in all cases, for volunteers for example who won’t be in the building all day, everyday.

All other checks such as DBS, references, Prohibition, List 99 should be complete.

The risk assessment should be signed off by the head.

Does that help?

In reply to Sasha:

Thanks Sasha, yes that is very helpful to get another perspective on what we can do. The risk assessments are tricky as we can't guarantee that the individual will never be alone within School as it is impossible to supervise at all times, particularly if we are to employ someone on a permanent basis. I guess as you say as long as we ensure that all other checks are in place - DBS, references etc. then we are doing as much as we can to reduce the risk

Hi Sharon

I think it’s worth adding that whilst there is no fixed guidance on how far to go back with additional checks like this, if someone has resided or worked outside the UK it is common practice to operate a 5 year rule. Therefore if someone has resided outside the UK for more than 3 months in the last 5 years then I would expect the school to ‘make any further checks they think appropriate so that any relevant events that occurred outside the UK can be considered.’ Advice I have read states it is at the discretion of the Principal as to what further checks are necessary. I wouldn’t really expect to do checks back to the age of 16 unless other pre employment checks highlighted concerns/they were relocating to the UK from another country they had resided in since aged 16.

That being said it is really a case by case decision and schools need to assess the risk involved before making a general rule of, for example, 5 years as this may not be suitable in all cases/schools.

Hope that’s useful!

The 5 year rule came from the NSPCC who have recently retracted this, as the safer recruitment guidelines do not actually specify a time frame.

I have come from other vetted industries where overseas checks are mandatory and find it somewhat concerning that schools do not require the same - if you had an employee who only lived in the UK for 6 out of their 25 working years, you would be happy to only accept a DBS and not know of any relevant convictions from the other country?

We've introduced that any successful applicant must complete an overseas declaration, and if they have lived/worked in the same country for more than 28 days they must provide a check. This is theirs to own, and we have excepted previous checks as long as the individual has not declared they've been back since the check was conducted.

If all other checks are satisfactory, we tend to complete an RA for the individual to start, as USA and Canadian checks can take up to 6 months!

Interestingly we recently hired a teacher who chatted with the HR rep about working abroad for over a year etc - but then on the declaration stated he hadn't. We contacted him as we knew this was incorrect and he insinuated he knew he'd have to do an overseas check if he made it official. Of course, we can't unknow what what know, and we said we would ignore this form if he completed it again correctly, and this individual was not allowed to start until the check came back just in case. But it also flags the trust we put in applicants/staff on being honest.

And my last point (sorry for ranting but this area is a BIG gripe of mine!), our CEO hired in an Ofsted consultant and when she reviewed our SCRs, ignored all those with British passports and declared that those without should all have overseas checks! She wasn't happy when I pointed out how discriminatory this was, and that a good number of those British staff had worked abroad, and some of those non-British workers had never lived or worked abroad!

The education sector really needs to play catch-up!

In reply to Kimberly:

I like the idea of the overseas declaration. Would you mind sharing the template with me? I could add it with an offer letter when the need arises. I get British citizens to provide me with an overseas check if they’ve been working abroad. Staggering what the Ofsted consultant said. Good for you for correcting her!

In reply to Sasha:

Thank you all for your invaluable advice. It does make me feel more confident about the recommendations I am making as to the checks we really need to make.