Hi, I am currently looking for a job after recently being made redundant from my current job, many years ago i worked in the health service (no patient contact) and am thinking of maybe trying to go back.
I would like a job thats not patient contact and noticed that for some of these jobs say they do checks and some they dont.

My conviction was about 6-8 years ago now for a section 39 (common assault offence) which was an unpaid work order of 180 hours plus a fine (compensation). In my last job which was not health care which i got made redundant from, luckily they didn't find out about it  but now that i am trying to look for a new job i am really worried about my past conviction, i am not really up to date with any changed that have happened in the law over the past few years either.

If i apply for any job or the health service do i need to declare anything and if they require a DBS check will anything still show up?

I am just so worried to apply for any jobs that say they require a DBS check

Regards

Dave

Hi Dave. Sounds like you were an adult when you were convicted, so it wouldn't be filtered yet (that won't be until after 11 years) so whether you need to disclose will depend on the job.

Any job that involves a DBS enhanced check (many in NHS will) you'll need to disclose.

Any job that only involves a basic check (or is covered by the Rehab of Offenders Act) you don't need to disclose as it's spent. 

From the ones i have seen, they do seem to say rehab of offenders act, but even though its spent, if they still said we still need to do a check on you, does that mean it wouldnt show up on that check?

Hi Dave

Jobs within the NHS that do not involve any patient contact or where there is no likelihood of you having any unsupervised access to patients would only require a basic criminal record check.  These only disclose unspent convictions and, based upon the information that you've provided, your conviction would now be spent and would not be disclosed on a basic check.

However, many NHS posts (even those with no patient access) say that they will do an enhanced DBS check even though legally, they are not allowed to do so.  If a DBS check was carried out then, as Paul says, your conviction would show for 11 years.

Don't be put off from applying for these types of jobs. If you believe that a role you're applying for wouldn't be eligible for a DBS check then you can raise this as an eligibility query with the DBS (see https://hub.unlock.org.uk/knowledgebase/challenging-an-ineligible-dbs-check-2/). The DBS will defer any check until they have fully investigated whether the role is eligible and will then revert to the company with the result of their findings. This will generally be to recommend that the organisation do a basic criminal record check. They don't divulge any details of the individual concerned. If you're worried about taking this step, it may be something that we'd be able to help with - so drop us an email.

If you decide to apply for a role which is eligible for a DBS check then having something recorded on the certificate won't stop you getting a job. It's fair to say however that the NHS can be very risk adverse and can often not see beyond what's written on the certificate. 

Good luck with the job hunting.  Let us know how you get on.

Debs 

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