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 have a duty, under section 3 of the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework to ensure that a safe and legal recruitment process is followed.

They must ensure that people looking after children are suitable. this includes checking they have the relevant qualifications, training and have passed any required checks to fulfil their roles.

Settings must notify those who want to work directly with children that they should declare all convictions and cautions. These include court orders, which may disqualify them from working with children or affect their suitability to do so.

This should be done in the advert, the job description and at interview. Getting this right ensures the safety and wellbeing of both children and employees.

As employers, early years and childcare providers also have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to ensure that all recruitment is carried out fairly and without discrimination.

Having a clearly documented recruitment and selection process helps evidence consistent fair practice and is a reminder to ensure checks for bias and discrimination are in place.

Good practice in recruitment brings many other benefits, including:

  • reduced employee turnover – evidence suggests that staff stay longer where settings have good recruitment and selection practices in place
  • improved culture – research shows how getting the right employees (those who reflect the ethos and values of the setting) contributes to more effective, committed and highly motivated teams with higher morale
  • cost effectiveness – getting it right will save you both time and money

There will be changes made to the EYFS statutory framework in September 2025.These will strengthen the safeguarding requirements, including changes to promote safer recruitment. 

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.

  • Make sure that this is included in all recruitment and selection information. It lets candidates know that you have rigorous checks in place, drawing people committed to safeguarding and acting as a deterrent to people who are not suitable for work with children.

  • 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.

    • 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.

    Have you remembered to include space on the application form to capture relevant information about qualifications in English, Maths and Paediatric First Aid?

    And for any relevant experience 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

  • This process needs to be systematic and consistent to ensure fairness. ACAS provide generic guidance on choosing who to interview.

    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 against the Department for Education’s (DfE) early years qualification checklist to ensure they are full and relevant or meet your needs?
    • Have you created a set of interview questions or activities that will allow you to assess candidate suitability for the role? ACAS offer generic guidance on interviewing.
    • 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

    • Were all the interviews fair and objective?
    • Did the interview provide an opportunity for the candidates to demonstrate their suitability for the role in your setting?
    • Could you clearly match the candidates’ skills and attributes to the requirements laid out in the job description?

  • This might be gaps in information supplied on the application form.

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

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, and 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).

  • Conditions of employment in line with safer recruitment and statutory requirements, requires candidates to:

    • provide at least 2 satisfactory references. You must contact referees in writing or by telephone - ACAS has a generic template for requesting references that you could adapt
    • evidence a full employment history or provide appropriate explanations for any gaps
    • provide original certificates of qualifications - you should verify these using the DfE early years qualifications checklist
    • provide information on other qualifications or training relevant to the role
    • 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
    • have an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check (more details on DBS checks is available below)

    Qualifications must be accepted as full and relevant for work in an early years and childcare setting. You should make your own satisfactory checks on qualifications or training such as English, Maths and Paediatric First Aid.

    Section 1 of Early Years Qualification Requirements and Standards provides information on the qualifications that staff must hold to be included in ratio, including information on Maths and English. Section 3 of the EYFS statutory guidance gives information on paediatric first aid training. You can find more details of how to do this in our section on suitable people.

    ACAS offers a generic recruitment checklist template that you might also find helpful, particularly with regard to ensuring anti-discriminatory recruitment practices.

    Remember, if you choose to use this checklist, you must adapt it to include all of the steps specific to safer recruitment in early years and childcare.

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 £13 per year and will keep their DBS up to date.

As an employer, you can ask for permission to view their original DBS check and carry out an instant free online check of any new information relating to their record. Volunteers can register 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 please 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

The county council are offering early years and childcare providers the opportunity to advertise vacancies for free on its partnership job search page.

We will be recommending our partners to signpost job seekers looking for opportunities in early years and childcare to this page. Jobs on the partnership page will also be promoted on the West Sussex early years and childcare training Facebook.

For a wider reach, we also recommend you use the free find a job service.

If you are advertising an apprenticeship, also use the free advertising option offered through your apprenticeship service account.

Further information