Pre-employment checks for returning seasonal employees - General - HR in Schools and Academies

8 Pre-employment checks for returning seasonal employees

Eve | 0 Posts

9 Oct, 2024 09:21

Hi,

I work in HR for a summer school and we hire approx 200 staff member each summer on fixed term contracts (usually for a 4-6 week period).

We currently carry out right to work and DBS checks for all employees, including returning staff who have worked for us the previous year.

My question is: if we have already reviewed their Right to Work documentation (British passport) and have a copy on file from their previous contract last year, do we need to see and copy it again for their new contract, or is the existing copy from their previous contract sufficient? The break between each contract is approx 10 months.

Likewise for DBS checks- if a returning staff member is signed up to the DBS update service, will we need to see their DBS certificate again (after having checked the update service) if we have seen the original from their previous contract, or if it is the same certificate, is it really necessary to check this again?

Any guidance would be much appreciated! I'm struggling to find any relevant information online.

Thanks!

Eve

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Kimberly | 0 Posts

9 Oct, 2024 11:27

Hi Eve

I would go back to source:

What does the home office say re RTW checks?

What does DBS say when you use the update service?

Rgds
K
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Robey | 0 Posts

9 Oct, 2024 14:21

Welcome to the community, Eve.

If they are British citizens or have ILtR, I would say there was no need to re-do the RTW check. In all other cases, you certainly should.

If I recall correctly, DBS checks don't have a run-out date as such. The onus is on the employer to determine an appropriate frequency for re-checks based on a relevant risk assessment. You could probably get away with doing checks every 2-3 years, whilst asking staff to sign a declaration that they have not been convicted of any crimes in the intervening period. If they disclose that they have got a fresh conviction, you would then run the DBS check again for verification purposes and risk assess accordingly.
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Deborah | 0 Posts

28 Oct, 2024 12:40

Hi Eve
Does your HRIS support 'Re-hiring' previous employees? So you just activate them again. If you wanted to you could have a 're-hire' workflow / task list with custom fields just for the ones who this re-hire applies to so you know the last time you checked the documents.
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Helen | 0 Posts

14 Nov, 2024 11:35

In reply to Deborah:
Advice we have received from immigration experts is that new RTW checks should be carried out on everyone. Only to check those with limited right to work in the UK is open to indirect discrimination (and the Home Office Guidance also indicates that everyone should be checked). There is a vanishingly small chance that a British National may have their nationality revoked too though that would not be my main argument.
We also used to rely on previous records for British and Irish Nationals but were advised this might not pass a Home Office Audit so we gritted our teeth and now recheck everyone. And I should add that the advisors we use are not generally too risk-averse, they are pretty pragmatic but this was a very clear "do it" directive.
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Teresa | 0 Posts

14 Nov, 2024 17:24

In reply to Helen:
I don't think that I would necessarily agree with the immigration experts here. For someone who is a British national, expired passports are an acceptable document, so unless they collect all expired passports from someone who had had their British nationality revoked (and how would they know they had handed them all in if they said they had lost one), then doing the checks again wouldn't really give you any indication that they had their nationality revoked.

I would also disagree that only checking people with limited right to work could be direct discrimination - discrimination means they someone has experienced a detriment - being asked to provide evidence of your RTW isn't a detriment (unless they don't have the RTW, but in that case there is objective justification
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Nina Waters | 0 Posts

14 Nov, 2024 17:42

It may feel ridiculous, but based on where I work, I'd recheck the lot each year.

If they're on the update service, it's a very quick visual check of the certificate. All other documents again should just be a matter of seeing them. From my most recent inspection, they were very antsy about SCR checks being completed too early - ie someone who was starting in September being checked in April (because they were doing some work in the interim in school), without being clear about why the check wasn't done in the three months leading up to the start date.

I also know that co-ordinating that many people for checks for a seasonal role will be like herding cats, so you have my huge sympathies!
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Rebecca | 0 Posts

30 Nov, 2024 20:46

in respect of DBS and the update service, their website says explicitly that before doing a status check you must see the original DBS paper certificate.
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Teresa | 0 Posts

2 Dec, 2024 11:36

In reply to Nina Waters:
I completely agree with DBS checks - we always redo them, no matter how recently the individual worked with us
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