NHS Employment Check Standards

This page contains the NHS Employment Check Standards - six PDF documents outlining the mandatory checks employers must carry out in the appointment, and ongoing employment, of all individuals in the NHS.

Developed with key stakeholders including the Department of Health (DH), the Centre for the Protection of the National Infrastructure (CPNI), and employers in the NHS; the NHS Employment Check Standards include those checks that are required by law, those that are Department of Health policy and those that are required for access to the NHS Care Record Service.

Employers will need to evidence their compliance of these standards as part of the Healthcare Commission's Annual Health Check in 2008/2009.

These standards apply to permanent staff, staff on fixed-term contracts, temporary staff, volunteers, students, trainees, contractors and highly mobile staff employed through an agency. Trusts appointing locums and agency staff will need to ensure that their providers comply with these standards.

Failure to comply with these standards could potentially put the safety, and even the lives, of patients, staff and public at risk.

The set of six documents below make up the NHS Employment Check Standards, covering:

1. Verification of identity checks
2. Right to work checks
3. Registration and qualification checks
4. Employment history and reference checks
5. *Criminal record checks
6. Occupational health checks

*See also under 'publications' section of this web page to download copies of the Model Declaration Forms, guidance on filling out CRB application forms, and a list of definitions, as referred to within the Criminal Record Check standard.