Schools / Employers
Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment
Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment
The very first consideration when selecting a recruitment business to assist you with your schools staffing needs HAS to be their commitment to safeguarding and safer recruitment. If you have ever spoken to representatives of recruitment agencies you will almost certainly have been told that the agency they work for have these very same commitments.
But how can you KNOW that this is the case? What can you do to allow yourself to rest easy, KNOWING with certainty that your chosen recruitment partner do as they say when they claim to be conducting their processes with Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment in mind?
To ensure our commitment to Industry Excellence as can be found in our company values, we are a proud member of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC). A fuller and more detailed description of who the REC are, and why you need to know who they are and what they are responsible for can be found on our Recruitment and Employment Confederation page.
We are legally bound to the commitments of the Conduct Regulations which set the legal standards for how all UK recruitment business and agencies are required to conduct their business. Please follow the link below for the GOV.UK guidance on Conduct Regulations.
A word of advice, speak to your current recruitment agency representative to ask for their understanding of what the Conduct Regulations are. Ensure that they are familiar with why the Conduct Regulations exist and what the relevant content (relating in particular to the Education sector) of the Conduct Regulations are.
A further step beyond the Conduct Regulations is the REC Code of practice. For those agencies that are REC Members, we are held to higher account then even the Conduct Regulations. The specific differences can be found on the REC page of the Merit Education website.
Asides from the various memberships, legal commitments and resources detailed above to prove our commitment to Safeguarding and Safer Recruitment, if you work with Merit Education you will also see these commitments demonstrated by your consultant. We strive to live by and to demonstrate our commitment to our own codes of practice, and in doing show it should hopefully be evident how seriously we take the safeguarding of children when providing staffing for your school.
Agency Workers Regulations
Agency Workers Regulations (AWR)
Although this was a piece of legislation that came into effect in 2011, it is still the case that there are misunderstandings about the guidance, the initial reason for AWR to be created, and in more than a few cases, there are still hirers and recruiters who are entirely unaware of what they are.
So, let's begin at the start. AWR were introduced to improve working rights and working conditions for agency / temporary workers. There were stark cases of mistreatment of agency workers in comparison to their permanent colleagues and counterparts. With this in mind AWR ensured parity between the two types of worker.
The present day misunderstandings of AWR as mentioned previously is concerning, but sadly not surprising. Although schools and hirers (and all other sectors of industry) were notified and offered guidance relating to AWR, many recruitment agencies and their consultants influenced the way that the legislation was interpreted and managed. Some cases were due to genuine misunderstandings and a lack of quality training. Other cases of misinformation were more down to deliberate manipulation. This led to many hirers being placed in extremely compromising positions.
Thankfully there is now a lot more understanding of the AWR than there was even just a few years ago. That being said, it is still an area that lacks the relevant support and management that perhaps should by now be offered.
The following link is for a sector specific document that gives exceptional advice and clarity on the subject: Please be advised that this is non statutory guidance and should be treated more as an advisory document.
For more information about the affect and the management of AWR, please give us a call on 0015 697 8185.
Candidate Vetting and Selection
Candidate Vetting and Selection
When a candidate first speaks to a Merit Education consultant, they will first be invited to discuss their suitability and also their current employment status. Provided that the job seeker is able to answer the initial questions regarding suitability and availability, they will then move onto the next step:
The Pre Interview Stage
At this point we will ask the work seeker mandatory questions to find out if there are any prohibitions that we need to be aware of, such as whether the candidate has been barred from working in schools, or whether they have any convictions or cautions that would prohibit them from working in an education setting. At this point we are of course simply asking questions with the expectation that candidates with significant safeguarding issues would volunteer relevant information and therefore allow us to halt the registration at this early stage if there were prohibitory issues, without the need for further checks. However, if the candidate passes the Pre Interview Stage then they would be invited to attend a formal, face to face Registration Interview.
The Registration Interview
This process can take place in two ways, either as an 'in person' meeting, or via online video link, such as via Teams or Zoom etc. During this meeting we discuss the candidates suitability and practical requirements in more detail. Importantly, we also ask a range of questions carefully designed to gauge a work seekers personality, their ambitions, their characteristics, and their classroom based skills, which will allow us to not only assess their general suitability for work with children but also to more accurately place them based on their answers.
Candidate Safeguard Checks and 'Clearance'
After the registration meeting, Merit Education will process the registration information, collect all mandatory statutory documentation, including performing all necessary safeguarding and vetting checks required to allow the job seeker to work in an educational setting. Once a candidate has provided all necessary documentation, the checks have been performed and the candidate has also demonstrated the necessary skills and attitude to work in a school, they will be classed as a 'Cleared' or 'Active' candidate and allowed to visit a school site to perform paid work.
Our full Recruitment Selection and Vetting Policy, as well as the Merit Terms of Business can be provided upon request.
You will then be notified when the registration process has been completed and will be termed as an 'Active' candidate with Merit Education!
Request Our Services
Request Our Services
Hopefully we have provided enough information about our services and our ethos to persuade you to give Merit Education a go! To request a member of staff, to ask for recruitment advice, or simply to have a chat and to allow us to introduce ourselves and our services, please get in touch via the link below, we would be delighted to hear from you.
Testimonials
Testimonials - How did Merit help you?
Feedback and advice is crucial, especially for new companies like ours. We need to know what we are doing that can be improved and tweaked. Likewise, we need to know what we are doing correctly so that we can continue to provide the high level of service that we aim for. Get in touch, let us know what you think.