Accreditations & Certifications
Our MD Kim-Marie an ex-nurse and with 25 years in the recruitment industry supplying to the NHS (including 6 years serving on the Board of the REC and various committees) was not surprised when LPP announced the mandatory requirement for the use of scanners or a system to validate the ID of staff supplied under the National Framework for Nursing Staff.
The question here is, can we now expect all future NHS framework agreements for staffing supply to require this as the norm?
It has been well publicised in the media for a number of years that our borders are too penetrable by illegals, so much so that LSE research commissioned by the government, published at the beginning of last year highlighted that as many as 1 in 20 workers could be illegal. The government have taken various steps to address this with the introduction of the Points Based System in 2008 and the Immigration Act 2014 encompassing the private rental market.
A lot of emphasis has been placed on enhancing pre-employment checks e.g. reference checking, occupation health, DBS… etc. and this is now an embedded process for many employers. One process however, which has not really moved out of the “dark ages” is right to work checking. Most employers still take a photocopy, say it’s a true likeness, examine the documents provided and then sign and date them. How can one keep up with the ever changing documents and their security features? Training courses, employ an immigration specialist, outsource to an immigration lawyer or just trust that your staff are good enough to spot an obvious fake?
Technology has caught up and can offer organisations the same level of checking of documentation that is performed when you travel between countries to help ensure that all their employees are legal and the company does not fall foul of making mistakes that can end up costing up to £20,000 in fines per illegal found, possible custodial sentences and reputational damage.
Bringing the long established right to work process into the 21st century using document verification and in some cases, better still, authentication via scanners is a first step to protecting your company. Then you need to ensure the correct Home Office guidance is applied during the employment process. New guidelines were published last month and if you haven’t had a chance to go through these click here to read more.
As immigration is always in the news and it seems successive governments continue to refine rules and guidelines, wouldn’t it be nice to have a solution that combined both scanning and the guidance in one package?
uComply says “welcome to the new age” and why not take a look at what we have to offer