Management Information Sheet

In November 2019, Norfolk Audit Services carried out a thematic audit on the Pre-Employment Safer Recruitment checks conducted within maintained schools. A sample of 10 maintained schools were visited.

The specific objective of the audit was:

• To provide assurance over the adequacy and effectiveness of the controls in place to ensure all schools staff, agency staff, contractors and volunteers who work with children undergo statutory recruitment checks to prevent people who pose risk or harm from working with children.

Our audit findings

The visits highlighted that in all of the Schools there were clearly defined roles in place for the undertaking and checking of the safer recruitment pre-employment checks.

At all ten schools, all staff involved in undertaking pre-employment safer recruitment checks are aware of their roles and responsibilities and adequate training has been completed.

All ten schools referred to the Keeping Children Safe in Education for guidance.

All ten schools maintain a SCR that is subject to independent checks to ensure it is accurate and up to date.

Retention policies were in place at all ten schools, and were being adhered to, to ensure that personal data was not kept for longer than required.

The following findings are an overall summary of the areas that need strengthening, and are not representative of every School visited:

• Third party agency staff were not recorded on the SCR, as required by Part 3 Para 148 of the KCSIE guidance 2019 but were recorded elsewhere.
• The recruitment policy did not include pre-employment checks for students, agency staff, contractors and volunteers; testing confirmed that these are undertaken.
• The School were unaware of the need for a recruitment health screening questionnaire to be completed upon offer of an appointment. Therefore, none of our sample at this School had had their fitness to work assessed as required by Part 3, para 138 of the KCSIE guidance 2019.
• A recruitment policy was prepared during the audit and had not yet been approved by Governors or circulated to the relevant individuals to ensure that it is adhered to during the safer recruitment process.
• Evidence of the Headteachers check and approval of right to work checks and the check that staff are not prohibited from working with children was not recorded.

Recommendations

We recommend the above issues are considered by your School's Leadership Team, together with any proposed actions for improvements you need to make in relation to your School. Any issues and proposed actions should be presented to the relevant Governing Body Committee for approval and monitoring.