Safer recruitment process

Completing all the relevant steps of a safer recruitment process will put your organisation in a stronger position to create safer places for everyone. Completing only one part of the process in isolation reduces the effectiveness of the procedures and potentially increases risk to vulnerable people and your organisation.

The seven steps covered should be used for EVERY role within your organisation, but the specifics of this will look different e.g. recruiting a volunteer for a one-hour a week role versus a full-time paid employee, or a for recruiting a young volunteer.

Roles and risk levels differ, as do organisations’ time and resources so it may be helpful to think of a ‘spectrum of formality', with an informal process on one end, and a formal process on the other.

Each organisation needs to assess where on the spectrum a role falls to be able to put in place appropriate recruitment procedures.

The key thing to remember is that the specifics of what you do will be proportional to the role, but the seven areas should always be present in some form.