Staff recruitment

Information to help you follow safer recruitment procedures, and develop a clear and consistent recruitment and selection process.

Why you need a recruitment and selection process

Early years and childcare providers must make sure that all adults who care for, supervise, or regularly work with children are safe to do so. The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) rules say providers must follow safe and lawful recruitment steps and only appoint people who are suitable.

Providers must check that all staff are suitable, including volunteers. This means they must check that people have the right qualifications and training and that they pass all required checks for the role.

Providers must check suitability before someone starts work and keep checking it while they are employed.

Providers must tell applicants that they need to share any information that could affect their ability to work with children. This includes criminal convictions or cautions, court orders, or anything else that could stop them from working in childcare or raise concerns. Providers should explain this in the job advert, the job description and at the interview. Doing this helps keep children and staff safe.

Providers must make sure their safeguarding policies clearly explain how they recruit staff safely. These policies must explain how to:

  • check new staff by checking their identity, qualifications, training, and suitability
  • obtain and review appropriate references in line with EYFS requirements
  • ensure that no one is left alone with children, or counted in staff to child ratios, until all checks are complete

As employers, early years and childcare providers must also follow the Equality Act 2010. They must run recruitment in a fair and lawful way and must not discriminate. Writing down clear recruitment steps helps show that decisions are fair and reminds employers to check for bias.

Good recruitment also brings other benefits, including:

  • lower staff turnover and a stable team because staff are more likely to stay
  • a positive workplace culture because staff share the setting’s values and work well together
  • lower recruitment and training costs because good processes save time and money

The EYFS rules were updated on 1 September 2025 to strengthen safeguarding and safer recruitment. These rules now apply to all registered early years providers.

Providers must make sure their recruitment, safeguarding policies and daily practice always follow the current EYFS rules.

Strong recruitment and selection processes

Addressing the following 12 questions will promote safer recruitment and ensure good recruitment and selection practices. This will then help you to increase your chances of recruiting and retaining the most suitable employees for your setting.

Before you advertise the post

  • Check it clearly describes the process to be followed and that it meets all statutory requirements. This includes discrimination and data protection requirements.

  • Include this in all recruitment and selection materials.

    It shows candidates that you carry out thorough checks, which helps attract people who are serious about safeguarding and discourages those who aren’t suitable to work with children.

  • A strong early years and childcare job description:

    • clearly explains the purpose of the role and how it supports children’s learning, wellbeing and safeguarding
    • sets out key responsibilities in simple, practical terms linked to everyday practice and the EYFS
    • makes expectations around safeguarding, inclusion and values clear from the start

    The person specification:

    • separates essential and desirable criteria
    • focuses on the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours needed to do the job well
    • emphasises values, teamwork and commitment to children, not just qualifications

    Overall, strong documents are clear, fair, inclusive and realistic.

    Think about whether the position needs to be exactly as it was, or if you need to make changes to suit your setting.

    You might think about if you need different skills from the postholder moving forward or want to change the hours.

    You may also want to consider the current needs of the children in your setting, including those with special educational needs and disabilities.

  • Your advertisement should also include details of the recruitment process, a timeline and your setting. You want to attract the right people. Ask yourself:

    • Is your advertisement presenting the ethos of the setting and the values that guide your practice, including your commitment to safeguarding?
    • Does it clearly and accurately describe the role in an engaging and positive way?
    • Does it make the setting attractive to candidates by outlining the benefits you can offer (including career development opportunities)?
    • Does it highlight your setting as supportive and nurturing environment for employees?

  • The application pack should include an application form that captures all the information you will need to select the right candidates for interview.

    Make sure you remember to include space on the application form to capture:

    • relevant information about qualifications in English, Maths and Paediatric First Aid
    • information that enables applicants to demonstrate how their skills and attributes align to the person specification
    • experiences supporting children with special educational needs and disabilities

    Make sure you check your language and questions to ensure your application pack is not discriminatory in any way.

Before you interview

  • Select applicants who best match the job description and person specification. This process needs to be systematic and consistent to ensure fairness.

    One way of doing this is to use a scoring system by turning each descriptor in the job description and person specification into a checklist and assessing the information in each application form against it.

    Try to ensure the same colleague is on the interview panel, which should be a minimum of 2 people, with one having completed safer recruitment training.

  • If there are any gaps in the candidate’s employment history, you can ask for these to be accounted for during the interview.

    Have you checked the qualifications they have achieved is full and relevant or meet your needs? For guidance, you can use the government’s Check an early years qualification service.

    Have you created a set of interview questions or activities that will allow you to assess candidate suitability for the role?

    Strong interview questions are:

    • directly linked to the job description and person specification
    • focused on practice, behaviours and decision making
    • designed to draw on lived experience of practice not rehearsed answers
    • rooted in children’s wellbeing, safeguarding and inclusion
    • focus on safeguarding, inclusion and relationships
    • help you see how someone will think, act and care for children

    Strong interview questions include:

    • experience based questions (what they’ve done, for example, tell us about a time you ...)
    • scenario or situational questions (what they would do in a given situation)
    • values based questions (how they think and behave - it is important that these questions align with the values and ethos of the provision)
    • safeguarding questions (mandatory for all roles)

    Have you asked them to complete a self-disclosure form? The NSPCC provides an example self-disclosure form.

    The second example on the template is the example you can adapt, as it has been designed for roles that involve regulated activity with children and require an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check.

    Note that this example is to help you create self-disclosure forms specific to your organisation’s needs.

    You should make sure it is appropriate for the roles you are recruiting to and it aligns with your safeguarding and organisational policies and procedures. This is an important step in ensuring you keep safeguarding at the heart of the recruitment process.

  • Remember to include all the information needed for them to attend, including whether any reasonable adjustments might be needed at any stage of the process.

Before you select your candidate

  • Check that:

    • all the interviews were fair and objective
    • the interview provided an opportunity for the candidates to demonstrate their suitability for the role in your setting
    • you could clearly match the candidates’ skills and attributes to the requirements laid out in the job description

    We suggest using a scoring matrix for each question. An example, showing the score and description is shown below.

    • 0 - No answer or answer does not meet requirements
    • 1 - Limited understanding; significant gaps or concerns
    • 2 - Basic understanding; meets some requirements
    • 3 - Good clear answer; meets requirements well
    • 4 - Strong answer; exceeds requirements with clear examples

  • Ask yourself whether you are confident you have all the information you need to identify a preferred candidate.

    You can use a simple tool like the one shared below to help you make a fair and objective decision.

    Example of a final assessment decision making tool:

    Example of a final assessment decision making tool.
    Assessment Outcome
    Total score  
    Strengths identified  
    Development needs  
    Safeguarding concerns (if any)  
    Recommendation Appoint, Reserve or Do not appoint

Before you formally offer the role

  • Getting the right person is so important. You need to be sure a candidate has demonstrated their suitability for the role. You have a statutory duty under the EYFS to ensure you are employing people suitable for working with children.

    If you recognise that a candidate could be right for your setting, with the right learning and development opportunities, consider offering them the role. You can then add undertaking and completing further learning and development into the terms and conditions of their employment (ratios allowing).

  • Candidates must be informed that employment is conditional on them providing the evidence required to ensure that they are suitable to work with young children. For you to have the information you need to meet your statutory duties and conduct the appropriate checks, they must:

    • provide you with named referees and contact details - you can use the Department for Education’s early years reference template and find more information on references on our staff suitability page
    • evidence a full employment history or provide appropriate explanations for any gaps
    • provide original certificates of qualifications
    • provide the start date of qualifications where not listed on the certificate
    • provide original certificates for other qualifications or training relevant to the role, such as level 2 English or Paediatric First Aid
    • prove they have the right to work in the UK - as an employer you must check a job applicant is allowed to work in the UK before you can employ them
    • undergo an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

    You can find out how to meet your duties regarding references, qualifications, obtaining an enhanced criminal records check and other processes you need to undertake to meet your statutory duties in our section on suitable people.

    It is important that you complete all of the checks and processes to ensure they are suitable to work with young children before your candidate’s offer of employment is finalised and they start work.

Registering with the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

A DBS check must be obtained for all adults who undertake regulated activity with children. This applies to all early years and childcare workers and volunteers. The employer is responsible for conducting checks to make sure the people they employ are suitable to look after, or be in regular contact with, children.

The DBS provide a searchable list of the umbrella bodies who process DBS checks for early years and childcare workers. Volunteers receive the check for free but must pay the handling fee.

Trustees, owners and directors of early years and childcare settings who make up the registered person with Ofsted must apply for DBS checks via the Ofsted application portal. This also applies to anyone living or working in a childminder's household.

We recommend you ask all new employees to sign up to the DBS update service within 30 calendar days from the date their DBS was issued. It will cost them £16 per year and will keep their DBS up to date.

As an employer, you can carry out an instant check of any new information relating to their record if the applicant is a member of the subscription service.

Please use the DBS Update Service employer guide before you carry out any checks and ensure you have the applicants permission to do so. Once you have permission, and the guidance has confirmed you are legally entitled, you can do a free online check.

Volunteers can register for the DBS update service for free.

Paying your staff

We recommend that you set pay scales for your staff so that you are fair and consistent in your approach. You will need to ensure:

If you are a childminder and want to employ an assistant, you will need to register with HMRC as an employer. This is because any assistants must be on your payroll. There is advice and guidance on getting your business ready to employ staff, including registering with HMRC.

Safer recruitment training

All managers, and those responsible for recruiting new staff to your setting, must be fully aware of employment law and national safer recruitment guidance.

To become more confident in the skills and knowledge required to safely and fairly recruit new staff, undertake the Safer Recruitment, Selection and Induction online learning.

This is offered as part of the West Sussex early years and childcare training and support programme and can be found in the self-led online training courses brochure.

Advertising staff vacancies

Find out how you can advertise your vacancies for free.

Further information