Choosing the right candidate for childcare job

It is important to refer back to your notes that you made throughout the whole process especially any that were taken during the interview. At this point this is where a point scoring system is effective as it demonstrates a fair approach to every applicant.

Contacting Successful candidiate

Once you have made that final decision, the manager or someone from the interview panel should telephone the candidate to provisionally offer the job subject to checks being carried out. Contacting the successful candidate by telephone enables you to begin building that personal relationship. A formal letter should also be sent either by post or email following the verbal offer. The applicants who were unsuccessful should also be telephoned and sent a formal letter .After making contact with the successful candidate it is time to start making those checks. It is advisable to request two references, one of which should be from the applicant’s recent employer. The other reference may be a character reference.  You may find that references only state that the employee actually worked for them; this can make it very hard for new employers to determine the applicants suitability for the job.

Carrying out checks

An enhance DBS check should be obtained, this is required by law when working with children. It will disclose if the applicant has unspent convictions, reprimands, cautions or final warnings, a check of local police records should be made, as well as ascertaining whether or not the person is on either of the barred lists held by DBS.

These checks are carried out to protect and safeguard children. It is advised that employers include a section in employees contracts for them to inform if any circumstances may impact on their suitability to work with children; an annual declaration should be signed to say that there is nothing that impacts on their suitability to work with children. This is advised as DBS checks do not include certain disqualifications such as own children taken into care or someone who is living in the household who is disqualified.

It is advised that all checks should be in place before any new employee starts work, however some setting employ staff whilst checks are being carried however they are never left alone with children.

Copies of qualifications should be obtained at the interview process and copies should be filed away in employee’s files.  A probationary period of three to six months should be stated on the job offer letter.

All new employees as part of the safer recruitment procedure should receive a robust induction programme, this should be linked to the employee’s job role and it should also include the setting aims, policies and procedures, Ofsted legal requirements and any information relating to best practice.