COVID pandemic brings a totally new identity of the healthcare industry to our survival. Now, doctors or healthcare personnel are the real heroes of our lives who put their lives to risk to save others. So, you can imagine the importance of background screening to recruit the right person and provide high-quality care to patients.
The National Health System (NHS) covers the population of the UK and is run by the Dept. of Health. Thus system treats a million patients every 36 hours. According to the facts given at healthmanagement.org, there are over 3.1 million healthcare employees who represent 11% of national employment. Moreover, 1.4 million works in a hospital of which 67% are physicians. The healthcare industry of Britain is showing strong capabilities to providing effective care by adopting the latest technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Why background screening is important for healthcare people?
It is really important to perform pre-employment screening of healthcare industry people. It ensures patients’ safety. To provide the best health services to people and taking care of their health, employment screening is significant. Some obvious reasons for background screening for NHS personnel are:
- It allows offering the right healthcare services to desired people with the utmost zest of government officers.
- It boosts the authenticity and trustworthiness of UK government health services.
- Through proper background checking, the most appropriate candidate can get the job and full the job responsibility dedicatedly.
- It will convey the right message among job seekers why they don’t get the job and eliminates biases.
- The most necessary point of incorporating pre-employment verification into the recruitment process is to ensure patients’ safety and security. Their health and recovery are the ultimate destinations of NHS services.
Employment checks for healthcare & NHS personnel
To keep patients and their family members’ safety in mind, pre-employment screening plays a crucial role in recruitment. The NHS Employment check standards uncover the necessary checks employers must perform while recruiting applicants for the desired jobs. With the combined effort of the Department of Health and NHS employees, these standards come into existence. These standards apply to the following persons:
- Permanent staff
- Staff on fixed-term contracts
- Temporary staff
- Volunteers
- Students
- Trainees
- Contractors
- Highly mobile staff employed through an agency
6 Significant areas of NHS Employment Check Standards:
Identity Verification:
One of the most fundamental prerequisites of pre-employment screening is identity verification. It is the first step to evaluate the profile of a job seeker and allows employers to know more about his/her personality. An applicant can submit photograph-based documents for identity checks including a UK driving license
Right to Work:
Through this check, your profile will be evaluated to check whether you are eligible to work or not. UK government is taking seriously the employment of illegal migrant workers and made changes to the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act (2006). These modifications came into effect on 29 February 2008 and considered the employment of illegal migrant workers a criminal offense without prior checks.
Registration checks:
Background screening trend helps you figure out what are essential steps to be taken before hiring someone to your department. That’s why you also need to perform registration checks to ensure that candidate is registered properly to describe its eligibility for the proposed role. It also makes sure that the applicants’ qualifications matching the desired job profile.
Employment history verification
Before hiring someone to your office premises, you must their employment history. It will help to figure out the candidates’ performance and way of handling job responsibilities. In such a case, you can consider references to get an overview of the track record of the employee’s current and previous employment background history. You need to cross-check references and applications sincerely.
Criminal record checks & model declaration forms
It is one of the most important steps to perform while recruiting anyone to your organization. For that, employers can take assistance from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and get information across England and Wales. It will give your candidate’s criminal convictions and other police records and helps you to make the right decision
Occupational health checks
For hiring the right applicant to NHS, it is required to perform a pre-appointment health check. It adheres to good occupational health practices. It ensures that prospective staff is psychologically and physically fit to perform job responsibilities. Furthermore, it also discloses any current or previous illness.
Conclusion:
When it comes to taking care of people’s health, you need to be 200% sure of candidates before hiring them. Therefore, it is essential to perform background screening for Healthcare & NHS personnel. For concerns or queries, let professionals at BPSS Clearance handle pre-employment screening process and ensure everyone’s safety.
Also Read: Top reasons to fail a security clearance UK