Safer recruitment: role of the governing board

Your board needs to confirm safer recruitment procedures are carried out in your school as part of it’s safeguarding responsibilities. Get to grips with what your role is, and how to do it.

Last reviewed on 14 June 2022
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School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 4375
Contents
  1. Make sure your school has safer recruitment procedures in place
  2. Check recruitment staff are suitably trained
  3. Make sure new staff undergo the required pre-employment checks
  4. Monitor the single central record
  5. Questions you can ask school leaders

Safer recruitment is just one aspect of your wider safeguarding duties. Find out more about your board’s safeguarding responsibilities.

Make sure your school has safer recruitment procedures in place

While you’ll delegate the operational tasks to your school leaders, your board’s still responsible for making sure your school is following safer recruitment procedures.

What can we delegate to school leaders?

Maintained schools: you can delegate almost all of your functions related to staff employment to your school leaders. But in terms of recruitment, you must make sure there are enough people interviewing an applicant who have completed safer recruitment training (more on this below). This task can't be delegated.

Academies: you can decide what functions you delegate, but you must record them in your scheme of delegation.

This is explained on pages 89 and 90 of the Governance Handbook.

 

Your job isn't to request DBS certificates and

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