Healthcare Recruitment Companies: Align Your Candidate Verification Procedures With NHS Trusts

Healthcare staffing firms in the U.K. are being asked to align their candidate verification procedures with an increasing number of NHS Trusts. These are not trusts in the legal sense; rather, they are public sector corporations each headed by a board of executive and non-executive directors. They generally serve a geographical area or a specialized function such as the ambulance service.

More and more NHS Trusts are relying on document identification solutions to verify the identity of those seeking employment. The rationale is to reduce fraud, increase patient and staff safety and to protect the reputation of the Trusts.

Many Trusts that have adopted higher level document identification are finding this as strong deterrent during their recruitment process adding to their current efficiencies, compliance and audit processes.

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Healthcare recruitment or umbrella companies of any size that work with NHS Trusts may be asked to mirror their recruitment processes when the Trust has adopted a scanning solution for ID authentication as part of Right to Work. In the Trusts’ view, because they have increased their level of document identification, recruitment partners should do the same to ensure compliance and risk levels are mirrored and that some onus is taken by the recruiter to demonstrate its desire to improved candidate vetting.

Healthcare staffing firms that fail to comply could lose contracts. Those ahead of the curve, though, may find themselves in a better position to win new business by demonstrating the same commitment as the Trust to ensure they remain contractually compliant and follow best practices.

Map this with the noncompliance penalties recently doubling to £20,000 and the sector may best be placed to review their current processes.

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