Professional registration and qualification checks 11 …

1 Professional registration and qualification checks July 2013 About the NHS Employment Check Standards 2 This document outlines the Professional registration and qualification checks that NHS organisations (across England) are required to undertake in the appointment and ongoing employment of individuals in the NHS. It is one of a set of six documents that make up the NHS Employment Check Standards. The NHS Employers organisation has developed these standards with the Department of Health and employers in the NHS. The standards, last updated July 2013, include those that are required by law, those that are determined by Department of Health (DH) policy in relation to compliance with the Government s core standards outlined within the Standards for Better Health, and those required for access to the NHS Summary Care Record (NHS SCR).

2 All NHS providers (including NHS organisations and private providers) are required to be registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and, as part of this registration , are required to comply with the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010 and the Care Quality Commission ( registration ) Regulations 2009. The CQC's Essential Standards of Quality and Safety outline 16 core standards which must be met, including having robust recruitment practices in place (Outcome 12: Requirements relating to workers, specifically refers). NHS providers should therefore provide evidence of compliance with the NHS Employment Check Standards as part of the CQC's annual regulatory framework.

3 Failure to comply with these standards could potentially put the safety and even the lives of patients, staff and the public at risk. The NHS Employment Check standards apply to all applications for NHS positions (prospective employees) and staff in ongoing NHS employment. This includes permanent staff, staff on fixed-term contracts, volunteers, students, trainees, contractors NHS, highly mobile staff, temporary workers (including locum doctors), those working on a trust bank, and other workers supplied by an agency. Trusts using agency, contractor or other external bodies to provide services must ensure, through regular audit and monitoring, that their providers comply with these standards.

4 Avoiding discrimination Under the Equality Act 2010, employers must not unlawfully discriminate in their recruitment processes on the grounds of ethnicity, disability, age, gender or gender re-assignment, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy or maternity, marriage or civil partnership. To avoid discrimination, employers must treat all job applicants in the same way at each stage of their recruitment process. Recording and protecting data NHS employers must carry out all checks in compliance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Information should only be obtained where it is absolutely essential to the recruitment decision and kept in accordance with the Act. Employers must record the outcome of all checks undertaken, using the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), where available, or an alternative HR management system.

5 These checks form part of the information governance and assurance standards linked to the use of the NHS Summary Care Record (NHS SCR). For more details, visit the Health and Social Care Information Centre: 3 Introduction 4 Minimum requirements 4 Professional registration checks 4 qualification checks 5 Alert notices 6 Withdrawal of a provisional offer of appointment6 Doubts on authenticity of information 7 Appendix 1: Checking registration with a Professional regulatory body8 Further information 14 Contents Professional registration and qualification checks June 2013 4 Introduction The purpose of registration and qualification checks is to ensure that a prospective employee is recognised by the appropriate regulatory body and that they have the right qualifications to do the job.

6 Employers must make it clear to prospective employees that appointment to any position is conditional on satisfactory registration and qualification checks , and that any information disclosed on the application form will be checked. Prospective employees must also be informed that any offer of appointment may be withdrawn if they knowingly withhold information, or provide false or misleading information, and that employment may be terminated should any subsequent information come to light once they have been appointed. Minimum requirements Professional registration checks Professional regulation is intended to protect the public, making sure that those who practise a health profession are doing so safely.

7 Employers must check the registration of health professionals with the relevant regulatory body. Employers must have the consent of the health Professional and their registration number in order to check the registration . It should be a contractual condition of employment that the healthcare Professional has registration throughout their employment. In the event that an individual's registration is suspended, the employer should treat this as an exclusion from the work for which the registration is required and manage it accordingly. There are currently eight regulatory bodies covering the health professions and, in total, they have around million health professionals on their registers.

8 Their four main functions are: establishing standards of competence, ethics and conduct establishing standards for training keeping a register of those who meet the standards dealing with registrants who fall short (by placing conditions on their registration or erasing them from the register, for example). Before NHS employers appoint any health Professional , they must always check the following three areas: that the individual is registered to carry out the proposed role whether the individual is subject to any current on their registration that might affect the duties proposed if the individual's fitness to practise is being/or has been investigated and the regulatory body has a duty to disclose this information.

9 Professional registration and qualification checks June 2013 5 See Appendix 1 for further information about checking registration with Professional regulatory bodies. qualification checks qualification checks are necessary to validate the information provided by an applicant in relation to their educational or Professional qualifications. Applicants may not always have the original documentation and employers will need to make an appropriate risk based assessment in relation to the priority given in the person specification to that qualification , and the level of checks required. Where qualifications have been checked by a Professional regulatory body and the individual's registration has been confirmed, then further documentary evidence about qualifications that are relevant to their registration should not be required.

10 Accepting that registration with a Professional regulatory body assumes that appropriate documentary evidence has been provided and validated by that regulator. Therefore, employers must verify that the applicant is actually the person registered with that regulatory body, that there are no restrictions to their registration , and there are no pending investigations on their fitness to practise. For non-health professionals, qualifications that are specified as a pre-requisite for the position being applied for must be checked. Where a qualification is essential for the position, employers must: request original certificates and retain a copy on file check that the details on certificates match the information provided by the applicant in their application form.