Balliol Day Nursery is committed to providing the best possible care and education for the children who attend. All involved in Balliol Day Nursery including staff and committee members are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children. The nursery is also committed to providing a supportive working environment for all its members of staff. The nursery recognises that, in order to achieve these aims, it is of fundamental importance to attract, recruit and retain staff who share this commitment.
Aims
The aims of the nursery’s recruitment policy are as follows:
- To ensure the safety and welfare of the children.
- To ensure compliance with all relevant recommendations and guidance by Ofsted and the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board.
- To ensure that the Nursery meets its commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, by carrying out all necessary pre-employment checks.
- To ensure that the best possible staff are recruited for the position.
- To ensure that all job applicants are considered equitably and consistently.
- To ensure that no job applicant is treated unfairly on any grounds including race, colour, nationality, ethic or national origin, religion or religious belief, sex or sexual orientation, marital status, disability and age.
Advertising positions
Positions will be advertised on the Oxford County Council ‘Careers in Childcare’ website and in the local press. All adverts will carry the following statement;
‘We are committed to Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. Preferred candidates will be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service check (previously CRB)’.
Recruitment and selection procedure
All applicants for employment will be required to complete an application form containing questions about their academic and employment history and their suitability for the role. A curriculum vitae will not be accepted in place of the completed application form. Any Candidate who submits a curriculum vitae will be asked to complete an application form.
Applicants will receive an application pack which will include:
- A covering letter giving details of the recruitment process, including the closing date for applications, interview date, details on where to find out more information about the nursery and confirmation that all appointments will be subject to a DBS clearance and two written references.
- General details about the nursery, which include our commitment to Safeguarding.
- Details about the position being advertised, such as hours of work, salary and holiday entitlement.
- A job description, written specifically for the role being advertised and containing the responsibility to safeguard children.
- A person specification, clearly categorising the ‘Essential Criteria’ and ‘Desirable Criteria’ for the role. Applicants will be asked to detail how their knowledge, skills and experiences, meet the requirements of the role (as summarised in the person specification).
- An application form, which asks candidates for information about:
- Name, address, contact details, date of birth.
- Name and dates of schools, colleges or universities attended and qualifications gained.
- Other employment they plan to continue.
- Full employment history, with dates any reason for leaving.
- General comments, including, reasons for the application, main achievements to date and the strengths they would bring to the post. Specifically how they meet the person specification.
- Name, address and contact details of two referees. One of which must be the most recent or current employer.
- An explanation that the post is exempt from the Rehabilitation of offenders Act and statement that convictions must be disclosed and will be taken into account in deciding whether to make an appointment. A declaration asking if the applicant has been convicted in a court of law and or cautioned in respect of any offence.
- Consent to submit to a DBS Check.
- Any restrictions on taking up work in the UK.
- Any other relevant Professional qualifications.
- Leisure interests, such as sports, hobbies and pastimes.
- A Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults Declaration, which asks if they have ever been convicted of any form of abuse of children or if they have ever been subject to any investigation or enquiry into abuse or other inappropriate behaviour.
Candidates will be offered the opportunity to come for an informal visit, prior to their interview.
Shortlisting candidates
Candidates will be shortlisted by the interview panel, which will consist of at least two people including the Nursery Manger. At least one person on the interview panel will have a Safer Recruitment qualification. Applications will be scrutinised to ensure that there are no gaps in work history. Applicants will be asked to explain at interview any such gaps. Applicants will be shortlisted according to their experience, qualifications and their ability to meet the criteria in the person specification. Applicants that do not meet the essential criteria will not be shortlisted.
Interviews
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend the nursery for an interview. This interview will consist of two parts.
- A play or story session with the children, where they will be observed by members of the interview panel.
- A formal interview with the full interview panel.
A letter or email, will be sent to the candidates giving details of the interview process. These will contain details of the date, time and location of the interview and expected duration, the names of the members of the interview panel and their roles and an explanation of the process to be followed. If they are expected to lead a story session, further details of this will be included.
Candidates will be given a list of documentation they are required to bring with them, in order to prove their qualifications and identity.
Interviews
All interviews will be conducted in a professional manner. Common questions will be agreed by the panel prior to the interview, but each candidate will have different skills, abilities and experiences and will need probing on different areas. Wherever possible questions will be open ended and will ask for examples of experiences. Hypothetical questions will be avoided wherever possible.
The Interview panel will meet in advance of the interview to familiarise themselves again with the requirements of the post and with the candidate’s application forms. This meeting is best scheduled just prior to the interview itself.
Sufficient time should be allowed at the start of the interview to put the candidate at ease and to establish a rapport, followed by a period acquiring information from the candidate through questioning.
Candidates perform best at interview if they are able to relax and respond freely to questions, rather than being put under undue pressure. The panel should therefore:
- Be relaxed and friendly in their approach, in order to encourage the candidate to feel relaxed and to be more open.
- Cover all aspects of the candidate’s application in relation to the post, identifying any particularly interesting points or discrepancies and in particular addressing any gaps in their employment history.
- The Candidate should be allowed to do most of the talking during the interview, the panel should avoid unnecessary interruptions.
- Questions should be asked about Safeguarding and behaviour management, in order to judge the candidate’s attitudes towards safeguarding children.
- The panel should give verbal and non-verbal encouragement. It is important to let candidates know that all panel members are paying attention to them throughout the whole interview, even when they are not asking any questions.
- The panel should make notes during the interview to remind themselves of key words used and explanations given.
The interview should contain a section towards the end for discussing expectations about the job and answering any queries which the candidate may have. Finally, the Chairperson and or Manager will conclude the interview with details of what will happen next in the process, and will make it clear that any offer will be subject to the taking up of satisfactory references and a DSB disclosure.
Selection
Before a selection is made the interview panel must ensure that all specific questions designed to gain required information about each candidate’s suitability have been asked, including those needed to address any gaps in information supplied in the application form. They must also ensure that they are able to make a confident selection of a preferred candidate based upon their demonstration of suitability for the role.
Once the interview panel have agreed their preferred candidate, the Chair or Manager will contact them to offer them the position, making clear that the offer is conditional on receiving satisfactory information from all necessary checks.
Pre–employment checks
The nursery will carry out the following checks in respect of all prospective employees.
Verification of identity and address
All applicants who are invited to an interview will be required to bring the following evidence of identity, address and qualifications.
- Current driving licence or passport or full birth certificate; and
- Two utility bills or statements (from different sources) showing their name and home address; and
- Documentation confirming their national insurance number (P45, P60 or national insurance card).
- Documents confirming any educational and professional qualifications referred to in their application form.
- Where an applicant claims to have changed his/her name by deed poll or any other mechanism (e.g. marriage, adoption) he/she will be required to provide documentary evidence of the change.
References
All offers of employment will be subject to the receipt of a minimum of two satisfactory references, one of which should be from the applicant’s current or most recent employer. If the current/most recent employment does/did not involve work with children, then the second referee should be from the employer with whom the applicant most recently worked with children. Neither referee should be a relative. All referees will be asked whether they believe the applicant is suitable for the job for which they have applied and whether they have any reason to believe that the applicant is unsuitable to work with children. All referees will be sent a copy of the job description and a person specification for the role which the applicant has applied for. If the referee is a current or previous employer, they will also be asked to confirm the following:
- The applicant’s dates of employment, job title/duties, reason for leaving, performance, sickness and disciplinary record whether the applicant has ever been the subject of disciplinary procedures involving issues related to the safety and welfare of children.
- Whether any allegations or concerns have been raised about the applicant that relates to the safety and welfare of children or young people or behaviour towards children or young people.
The nursery will only accept references obtained directly from the referee. It will not rely on references or testimonials provided by the applicant or an open reference or testimonials. The nursery will compare all references with any information given on the application form. Any discrepancies or inconsistencies in the information will be taken up with the applicant before any appointment is confirmed. All references will be followed up by telephone, to establish the identity of the person compiling the reference.
DBS checks
The nursery will apply for a DBS checks in respect of all prospective staff members, committee members and volunteers.
The nursery will always request an Enhanced Disclosure as described below.
- an Enhanced Disclosure will contain details of all convictions on record including current and spent convictions (including those which are defined as “spent” under the rehabilitation of offenders Act 1974) together with details of any cautions, reprimands or warning held on the Police National Computer. It may also contain non-conviction information from local police records which a chief police officer thinks may be relevant in connection with the matter in question.
- If the individual is applying for a position working with children, it will also reveal whether he/she is barred from working with children by virtue of his/her inclusion on the lists of those considered unsuitable to work with children maintained by the DfES and the department of health.
Contract of employment
If the above conditions are satisfied and the offer is accepted then the applicant will be issued with a contract of employment as confirmation of employment. All appointments are subject to a six months probationary period during which the notice period to terminate the employment for whatever reason, by either the employee or the nursery is 4 weeks. The nursery also reserves the right to extend this probationary period should it deem this necessary.
Retention and security of disclosure information
The nursery’s policy is to observe the guidance issued by the DBS on the use of disclosure information. In particular, the nursery will;
- Store disclosure information and other confidential documents issued in regards to the DBS check in locked cabinets, access to which will be restricted to specific members of staff
- Keep a record of all disclosures in its central record for safeguarding. This will include details on the person’s name, date of birth, the unique number, date issued, documents used to confirm identity and the name of the verifier. New staff members will be asked to sign up to the DBS live disclosure system, In order that ongoing checks can be made as to the status of their disclosure.
Retention and disposal of records
If the applicant is appointed, the nursery will retain any relevant information provided on their application form (together with any attachments) on their personnel file. If the applicant is unsuccessful, all documentation relating to the application will be confidentially destroyed, unless the applicant specially requests the nursery to keep their details on file.
19 October 2020