Recruitment Policy

Author:	Jono Erodotou
Responsibility:	All Staff
Effective Date:	01 June 2024
Review Date:	30th May 2025
Approved By:
Version Number:	01

Amendment / Review History #

Date	Author	Comments

Introduction #

It is the policy of K4 Medical Services to fairly and cost-effectively recruit and select the best quality Staff/Contractors, in the right numbers and with the right skills, knowledge and experience to provide high quality service delivery, ensuring that our appointment procedures are consistent with good employment practice and legal requirements.

K4 Medical services recognise its staff as being fundamental to its success. A strategic and that a professional approach to recruitment processes helps to enable K4 Medical Services to attract and appoint staff with the necessary skills and attributes to fulfil its strategic aims and objectives, supporting the delivery of exceptional and appropriate levels of care to our patients and Clients.

K4 Medical Services is committed to ensuring that the recruitment and selection of staff/contractors is conducted in a manner that is systematic, efficient, and effective and promotes equality of opportunity. K4 Medical Services will take all necessary steps to ensure that its recruitment procedures, including ore and post-employment checks are implemented in accordance with the employment law.

Recruitment should be treated as a key public relations exercise as the way it is managed affects K4 Medical Services image, and consequently its ability and appoint high calibre staff.

All vacancies (internal and external), substantive, fixed term and secondment, must be placed via the HR department to ensure compliance with equality policies, and to follow best practice and guidelines for fair recruitment processes.

Scope #

This policy applies to all applicants for external and internal recruitment for permanent, fixed term and contractor’s appointments.

The registration of contractors only workers follow the same pre-employment process as outlined in this policy.

Purpose #

The purpose of this policy is to ensure that appointing managers, and those involved in recruitment and selection, apply a fair and consistent process.

The policy ensures consistency in the mandatory employment checks (identity, right to work, criminal record (DBS), qualification/registration, occupational health clearance, employment history/references) applicable to all appointments whether permanent or fixed term, in line with NHS Employment Check Standards. All pre-employment checks must be compliant before an unconditional offer of employment will be made.

Without consistency, decisions in selection and promotion may be subjective and result in discrimination, thus breaching both legislation and K4 Medical Services policy. The policy details how consistent and justifiable criteria must be established and used throughout the recruitment process.

Equality Statement #

K4 Medical Services strives to ensure equality of opportunity for all individuals and, to that end, this policy aims to ensure:

• K4 Medical Services has develops positive practices to promote equality of opportunity in employment.
• Recruitment, selection and promotion procedures provide equal access to all persons regardless of gender, race, nationality, religion and belief, ethnic origin or marital status, age, colour, disability, social background, sexuality or sexual preference.
• Encouragement is provided to enable staff to develop to their full potential, thereby making the best use of the considerable skills within K4 Medical Services.
• Recruitment and selection is always an open, competitive process except where a member of staff/Contractors is being redeployed, where they are at risk of redundancy, to accommodate their disability, health needs, maternity provisions, training or other similar situation, or where there is an urgent need for secondment/temporary cover to ensure service delivery.
• All staff/Contractors involved in recruitment and selection should receive appropriate education and/or information in order that staff are selected, promoted and treated fairly according to their merits and abilities to ensure that assessment and selection is carried out in a fair and thorough manner.

This policy is to be used in conjunction with the Recruitment and Selection Procedure and the Recruitment Flow chart (Appendix 1) It supports the inclusion of greater objectivity into what could be a subjective process.

Responsibilities #

Ops Manager and HR Manager will work closely together to ensure an efficient and effective process:
additionally, they will have their own responsibilities.

Ops Manager and HR Manager will be responsible for ensuring that

• All jobs are reviewed to confirm suitability of the current job description and person specification, considering skills, competencies and experience required for the job.
• The current job description and person specification are still relevant for the post and will review the need to replace like for like, particularly where structural and/or budgetary changes have taken place. They will liaise with each other to ensure all new posts are evaluated or matched to job profiles and ensure that all job descriptions and pay bandings comply with K4 Medical Services agreements.
   
• All applications are assessed fairly, irrespective of gender, race, nationality, religious belief, ethnic origin or marital status, age, colour, disability, social background or sexuality.
   
• The recruitment and selection process is carried out in a fair and thorough manner, paying due regard to current legislation and best practice.
   
• Their own knowledge and skills in the recruitment and selection process are maintained and updated.
   
• All candidates short-listed are interviewed in an objective and open manner and, where appropriate, use other selection tools.
• Arrange for a suitable panel to interview on an appropriate date and at an appropriate location agreed in advance.
   
• Anyone participating in the recruitment and selection process has received adequate education beforehand.
• Interview notes are factual, clear and legible (noting that, under the Data Protection Act, candidates may request access to this information).
• Applicant’s identity, qualification and other paperwork is checked and photocopied at interview. – Whilst some discussion about start dates may take place, it should be stressed that a start date cannot be agreed until all pre-employment checks have been satisfactorily completed.
   
• New staff should receive a timely and tailored induction programme, including attendance on mandatory and statutory training programmes.
• Advising managers on issues contained within this policy, as well as best practice and current legislation.
   
• Coaching and guiding managers through the recruitment and selection process to ensure they perform their role in a fair and thorough manner.
   
• Providing help and guidance with realistic timescales and the impact it has on the effectiveness of a recruitment campaign. Provide high quality, accurate and timely interview and selection paperwork.
   
• Ensuring that all communication to applicants is accurate and meets legislative requirements.
• Carrying out all pre-employment checks in line with best practice and the appropriate employment legislation/regulations.
• Check parity of selection processes within directorates to ensure consistency and escalate issues as appropriate.
• Maintaining ongoing contact with applicants throughout the recruitment process, keeping them updated on their status in a timely and appropriate manner.
   
• Issuing conditional offers of employment and contracts to successful applicants.
• Ensure that completed paperwork is gathered for the personal file.

Job Analysis #

Before any decision is made to advertise a job, the Ops Manager should first establish that a real vacancy exists and complete a full evaluation of the need for the role against the department’s strategic plans and budget. Ops Manager & HR Manager should assess the job requirements of the post and consider change or re-evaluation requirements necessary to contribute to the K4 Medical Services needs in line with current workforce plans. Once a vacancy has been agreed, the manager should be clear about requirements of the job. Each job must have a clearly written job description and person specification and should be consistent (in banding and content) with other posts covering a similar role within K4 Medical Services.

Job descriptions should be reviewed every time a vacancy occurs to ensure that they remain relevant and are flexible, including making reasonable adjustments should people with disabilities apply.

Person specifications should describe the genuine minimum requirement, and emphasis should be placed on quality and not duration of experience.

Opportunities for flexible working should be assessed and acted upon to attract as wide and talented a group of applicants as possible.

Details of working patterns/shift rota and on-call rota should be included with the Job Description & Person Specification whenever practicable.

Job Evaluation #

Job descriptions should be reviewed as necessary, and changes and adjustments made where necessary to ensure they remain relevant and reflect the requirements of the job role.

Advertising Vacancies #

Prior to advertising the vacancy, the manager responsible for the post should ensure that appropriate funding is in place for new posts or to refill existing posts.

Advertisements should be designed and placed to attract as wide a group of suitably qualified applicants as possible.

Advertisements should reflect K4 Medical Services commitment to equality of opportunity, thus should not discriminate directly or indirectly against any potential candidates’ age, gender, race, nationality, ethnic origin, color, marital status, disability, social background, sexual orientation or religion.

K4 Medical Services is positive about employing disabled people and maintaining the standards set by the Employment Services Two Ticks symbol. This means that within all advertisements the following statement must be included: “All applicants with disabilities and who meet the essential criteria for the job will be invited for interview”;

Posts will usually be advertised externally, via media as necessary to ensure the potential pool of applicants is not unduly restricted. However, where an adequate internal labor market is identified, an internal advert would be acceptable.

Low Volume and internal vacancies will normally be advertised for a minimum of two calendar weeks (although, in exceptional circumstances this period may be shortened), prior to considering using additional media.

Where redundancies are likely to result from restructuring or reorganisation exercises in K4 Medical Services, advertising may be restricted to internal candidates and/or local staff as appropriate.

Shortlisting Candidates #

All shortlisting must be done anonymously.

All candidates will be shortlisted based on how closely they fit the person specification. If the Ops Manager can identify the candidate, they will disregard any “known” information: for example, past “spent” disciplinary actions or absence must not be taken into account.

All candidates are entitled to request feedback, if their application has not been successful.

All shortlisted applicants should be asked if they require any particular arrangements to be made in the selection process to enable ease of participation, for instance in the case of disability.

All disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria for the position must be short listed for interview.

Assessment Techniques #

The use of assessments may be appropriate for some posts.

The recruiting Manager should liaise with the HR Manager, where necessary, to discuss what is appropriate and how it should be carried out.

Selection #

All staff/Contractors involved in recruitment selection should be trained in fair and objective recruitment and selection techniques and understand the impact of the Equality Act on recruitment processes and practices.

Panels will comprise of no less than two members for low volume roles, one being the Operations manager for the job function.

There may be occasions when HR Manager representation may be necessary or desirable. It is not appropriate for HR Manager to be involved in all interviews, but may be particularly useful when senior or sensitive internal appointments are being made or when managers are unable to identify any other suitably trained person to participate.

Similarly, there may be occasions when external assessors are required to participate in the selection process; for instance, where the post requires a specific expertise that may not be able to be assessed internally. The role of the external assessor is to determine the suitability for each candidate to the post and not to participate in the decision-making process.

Selection should be consistently applied and based upon clear criteria, in line with the job description and person specification. Selection decisions must be carried out by more than one person. Where a panel is appropriate, it should (if at all possible) reflect the diversity of the workforce.

All candidates are entitled to request feedback from the panel on their performance at interview and/or assessment. They are also entitled, in line with the Data Protection Act, to view written records of their interviews and/or assessments; as such, interviewers should make factual, legible notes based on the candidates’ interview responses and performance at assessment.

Appointment #

A formal letter should be sent to the successful candidate/s within a period of one week from the final decision and should include all K4 Medical Services contact details etc, with an invitation to a meeting with management, so as to arrange suitable dates for induction.

The conditional offer of appointment will be made by the HR Manager to the selected candidate. The offer is conditional upon the satisfactory completion of all pre-employment checks.

Pre-Employment / Contractors Checks #

All prospective K4 Medical Services employees are subject to a series of pre-employment checks. These are vital to comply with the law, to protect K4 Medical Services and to ensure that our recruitment is safe. Employees/Contractors should NOT start their assignment before they are cleared.

In very exceptional circumstances, and only following a risk assessment and prior approval of the Director, where there is an urgent business need an employee may be authorised to start before all Pre­ employment/Contractor’s checks are complete but not before they have been applied for.

Further detail about Pre-employment checks is below in Appendix 2. (Also see below, Withdrawing Conditional Offers.)

Employing or Contracting Ex-Offenders #

Having a criminal record should not automatically mean withdrawal of an offer of employment; this depends on the nature of the position, and the circumstances, background to and time since the offences were committed.

Failure to declare any information that is directly relevant to the position sought will lead to withdrawal of an offer of employment and could constitute a criminal offence. Any suspicion that this has occurred may result in the matter being passed to the Police.

Some offences mean that individuals are banned from working with children and/or vulnerable adults. It is a criminal offence to knowingly employ such individuals in such a role.

Where a Disclosure reveals convictions, caution, reprimand or a warning under PoCA or PoVA barred lists section of the DBS, such an individual should not be allowed to undertake a Regulated Activity (as defined in the Health & Social Care Act 2008), it is a criminal offence to appoint such a person to carry out the Regulated Activity.

If any matters are revealed either in the DBS disclosure information or by an applicant at application stage, the K4 Medical Services will discuss these matters with the candidate before a decision is made about withdrawing or confirming the job offer.

This will be reviewed by the HR Manager and Ops Manager on a risk assessment basis, with consideration being given to:

K4 Medical Services legal responsibilities. A job risk assessment (see appendix 3).

•  The seriousness of the offence and its relevance to the safety of patients, other employees and property.
• The length of time since the offence occurred.
• Whether the offence was a one off, or part of a history of offending, and any efforts to avoid reoffending.
• Any relevant information offered by the applicant about the circumstances which led to the offence being committed.
• The degree of remorse expressed by the applicant and their motivation to change.
• The applicant or employee must be given the opportunity to discuss the disclosure information before the final employment or volunteer decision is made.

Withdrawing Conditional Offers #

The offer of employment/work will be withdrawn if a candidate fails to satisfy the pre-employment / Contractors checks, is dishonest or fails to disclose any cautions, warnings, reprimands or convictions.

The HR Manager, in consultation with the Ops Manager, will be responsible for deciding whether an offer of employment is to be withdrawn and a letter will be sent to the candidate, clearly stating the reasons for this. Complex cases will be referred to the Director where necessary.

Where a candidate has commenced in employment, on a conditional basis pending completion of preemployment checks, the appropriate Manager will be notified, and they will take the necessary action to terminate the employee’s employment, without notice, giving reasons for this.

Record Keeping and Monitoring #

Records and notes of all short listing and interviews must be made and retained.

Reasons for decisions in relation to selection or rejection of candidates must be recorded and may be made available to candidates if requested. Applicants have the right to access any documentation held on them in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

A written record of all decisions taken in accordance with this policy should be kept for a minimum of one year. All records will be retained by the office.

Documentation relating to applicants will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and in accordance with Data Protection law.

The Office will implement systems to monitor selection procedures both to obtain the necessary statistical information and to audit the procedural aspects of the recruitment process. This is necessary to meet statutory requirements and to ensure good employment practice.

Statistical analyses and reports will be provided to the relevant bodies as required and to appropriate internal departments/managers and meetings as required on a regular basis.

Probationary Period #

New employees are appointed subject to successful completion of a probationary period this is normally 6 months, depending on the role but, this can be extended to 12 months where necessary. This period is intended to give both K4 Medical Services and the employee time to establish the employee’s suitability for the role and, where required, to provide opportunity for the employee to receive support and gain experience necessary to perform their duties to a satisfactory standard.

Fixed Term Contract Post > 12 months #

To ensure equality of opportunity for all interested individuals, fixed term contract posts lasting for more than 12 months will be advertised and selection will take place in accordance with the normal recruitment procedure.

Fixed Term Contract Post < 12 months #

Where there is a requirement for a position to be filled for a very short period, of 12months or less, the position may be filled without being advertised. This applies particularly where the requirement is urgent and/or the pool of eligible candidates is judged to be very limited. Before this approach is adopted the circumstances should be discussed and agreed with the Office Manager and referred to a more senior level if required.

Bribery #

K4 Medical Services has zero tolerance in relation to any forms of fraud or bribery as defined under the Fraud Act 2006 and Bribery Act 2010.

K4 Medical Services prohibits bribery and will not tolerate its directors, management, employees or third parties, in their involvement in the organisation, being engaged in bribery whether by offering, promising, soliciting, demanding, giving or accepting bribes or behaving corruptly in expectation of a bribe or advantage.

As part of this fair recruitment process, K4 Medical Services will not accept any attempts to bribe, corrupt or participate in fraud by interviewers or interviewees. If an individual(s) is suspected of attempting to bribe, or of being bribed by, another individual during the recruitment process then the suspicion should be reported immediately to the Ops Manager and Director.

Complaints and Grievances #

Candidates who have concerns, complaints or grievance regarding the recruitment and selection process are entitled to express their grievance with any part of the process.

The first step should be to raise the matter informally, (in writing or verbally) with the HR Manager and, hopefully, the matter will be resolved at this local stage without recourse to formal procedure.

Should the matter not be resolved informally, candidates have the right to raise the matter formally.

Candidates should set out the details of the grievance and desired outcome in writing and send to the Office Manager. The matter will then be dealt with at a higher level.

All complaints and or grievances will be dealt with efficiently, properly investigated and parties treated fairly.

Audit and Review #

This policy will be reviewed after 3 years; it may be reviewed sooner in the light of legislative change.

Appendix 1 – Recruitment and Selection Procedure and the Recruitment Flow Chart #

Appendix 2 – Employment Ex-Offenders #

Appendix 3 – Fit and Proper Persons Regulations: #

Statement: 

Being Based in England, K4 Medical Services does come under the jurisdiction of the CQC. The Company recognises the need for uniformity and high levels of professionalism in the work it carries out and therefore treats CQC guidelines as a standard for its commitment to Patient care across the whole of the Company processes. 

• Under Regulations 5 of the CQC, ambulance service providers have an obligation to ensure only individuals deemed fit and proper for their role are employed.

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• This applies to directors, that are, executive and non-executive, permanent, interim and associate positions, regardless of their voting rights.

• In addition to all the standard pre-employment checks, including where necessary professional qualification and registration checks (clinical and non-clinical), all Directors will be required to complete a fit and proper person test declaration form.

• Directors will also be subject to a search of the disqualified director register and the insolvency and bankruptcy register.

• Where searches return information regarding a candidate and/or where the candidate discloses something on their fit and proper person declaration form, this should be reported to the HR manager for escalation with Directors to investigate accordingly.

• All checks will be recorded and evidenced

Pre-Employment Checks #

To ensure the safety of our patients and to comply with regulations, all of our staff need to have pre-employment checks carried out. the list of checks and how they are done are listed below:

1. Enhanced DBS check with Adult and Child Barring List Check – the certificate must be seen and a scanned copy kept for auditing purposes for the length of time the certificate is valid. The DBS certificate can be supplied by the candidate, however it must be on the Update Service. If the certificate is not on the Update Service, the certificate must be within the past 12 months and a new check done with the 12 month time frame. For clarity, If a candidate wished to start with K4 Medical Services on the 1st June 2024 and their DBS certificate was printed the 5th November 2023, this certificate could be used until the 4th of November 2024, however a new DBS check would need to be completed before the 4th of November 2024. The candidate would need to cover the cost of the DBS and when the certificate arrived, must pay to have the new certificate be added to the Update Service. Failure to do this could end the candidate’s employment
2. An Update Service check to ensure the DBS certificate supplied remains current and valid. When this check is done a screen shot of the check must be kept and checked every 12 months.
3. Completion of the Application Form with:
   – Minimum of 3 years work history
   – One work and one character reference details (including contact number, email address and postal address, the references supplied must be contactable).
   – all sections of the form must be filled in. Failure to do so could delay the start date.
4. A scanned copy of a medical qualification that is recognised and mappable to the FREC qualifications that K4 Medical Services use. For clinicians, this must be a degree or equivalent.
5. For clinicians, a registration check, NMC, HCPC, GMC…etc. This must be done by the candidate supplying their registration/pin number and a screenshot of the register check must be kept and updated at the date the registration is due to expire.
6. UK Driving Licence Check. The front and back of the driving licence must be scanned and a copy kept until the date the driving licence expires. The address on the licence must match their home address supplied on the application form. Failure of the addresses matching will block the candidate from driving company vehicles, until the candidate has updated the information on their Driving Licence.
   
   The driving licence must also be checked online to confirm:
   – the addresses on the licence and Application Form match
   – that the licence is in date and valid
   – the candidate is not banned from driving and has no more than 6 points (more than 6 points the candidate must be approved by a director to drive, which may include a driving assessment).
   – what category of vehicle the candidate may drive
7. A Right to Work in the UK check must be completed. This is done by following the Right to Work in the UK check sheet. Scans of all the documents supplied must be completed and stored for audit purposes.
8. The completion of the Driver Medical Questionnaire. Once completed this form must be stored for audit purposes. Any items that cause concern must be highlighted to the Directors. This information may be checked, with consent of the candidate, against their Doctors records. Failure to authorise the release of their medical records by candidate will cause the withdrawal of their offer of employment.
9. The completion of the Occupational Health Questionnaire. Once completed this form must be stored for audit purposes. Any items that cause concern must be highlighted to the Directors. This information may be checked, with consent of the candidate, against their Doctors records. Failure to authorise the release of their medical records by candidate will cause the withdrawal of their offer of employment.
10. Evidence of Vaccination Records held by the candidates GP.
11. Completion of the UK Tax Starter Form or evidence of a Unique Tax Reference (UTR), depending on whether the candidate is being paid by us or wishes to invoice us for the work completed. Should the candidate with to invoice the company for work completed, they will be required to show evidence that they have paid tax on their earnings.
12. All candidates must complete the mandatory training set out to them by the Training Lead. this must be done within 6 months of employment. If this training is not completed within 6 months, the candidate’s employment will be suspended until completion of the training requirements set out by the Training Lead.
13. Completion of the Equal Opportunities form.
14. If he candidates medical qualification does not show, then the candidate must show evidence that they have completed an annual BLS and AED update. This does not need to be nationally recognised, however CPD must be shown when requested.

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GDPR
All the above checks must be kept for audit purposes to ensure the company is complying with regulations and legislation. All staff can request to see the information held about them and can change information, if it is incorrect. However evidence of the change must be supplied. If the candidate is not successful or there is termination of employment, all documents will be kept for 7 years for audit purposes. Once this time-frame has ended all documentation will be securely destroyed and the candidate informed of the destruction.