They asked none of that.

As mentioned earlier in the thread - This was set up via the job centre's Long Term Unemployment scheme, so the companies are aware it's for people with 12+ months unemployment. They didn't ask for any references at all, the job centre just give them a bunch of CVs, they pick out the ones they like the look of and interview them and then offer the job as applicable.

Congrats - great news to hear.

Can I ask if they asked for any references from previous employer and if you had to explain the unemployment gap? How did you circumvent around that (if they did ask).

So an update following my induction! All looking super good now!

Running through the paperwork I was obviously a bit anxious and waiting for the dreaded question about criminal convictions to come up but it never did! I did look online and it seems like they don't bother doing disclosure/DBS checks.

I ran through all the paperwork, right to work and all that stuff, got my shifts for next week all sorted and ready to go. 

So super positive, the only real thing now I guess would be if a member of staff decides to Google me then I'll have to obviously try navigate that but I'll worry about it if it happens.

Yeah the employment obligation is a bit weird as up until that point I'd always been working under the pretense that it was required and one thing that was told to me a few years back was the police could make a decision to disclose to my employer should they feel there is a potential safe guarding issue (like becoming a school janitor or something). But if I'm under no obligation to tell them then how would they know in order to make that judgement call..?

Thankfully they've been pretty hands off with me the entire time. I don't have any SHPO/SOPO conditions, I'm purely just registration requirements however they do have their random spot checks of my devices to make sure I'm behaving myself.

Thanks for the good wishes! I hope it sticks as it'd be a good finishing point for it all as I'm officially off the register and a "free man" in February so not too long to go however social work did state there might be potential for an early discharge but I'm not holding out much for that.

Thanks. That's interesting about the no obligation to update them about employment. I'm presuming them being involved is when it comes to the SHPOs etc, the 'access to devices' is ridiculously punitive.
I have my fingers crossed for you anyway and hope you're able to put this frustrating time behind you!

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Fighting or Accepting - its difficult to know which is right and when.

Yeah, offence aside I'm like the perfect candidate for them. I live about a 10 minute walk from the store, I have 15+ years of customer service experience, nearly 10 of those in retail management, I live alone and have no childcare or anything so I'm available for any shift and I'm also old enough now where I'm not going to be out on the lash every night and come into work hungover and they have to deal with all that nonsense. So fingers crossed!

My PPU has only been involved as much as needed. As a matter of courtesy - any job that is looking promising I will let them know about so they can make a judgement call if they perhaps need to step in but that's never been an issue as I've been realistic with my job applications. I did reach out again with regards to this one though as it occurred to me I'd need to renew my personal license for alcohol and I wasn't sure how that would work with a criminal record. Turns out it's really a non-issue, if the offence is unspent then the licensing board might approach Police Scotland to get their take and they will have the final say on it - My PPU says with image offences its never been an issue in their experience so that should be fine.

Also seemingly I'm under no legal obligation to update them with regards to employment (I got this in writing) I thought I did and it was part of my notification requirements as I asked my PPU about the best course of action as I'd hate to spend all that time filling out the forms to then potentially lose the job to come back in and fill it all out again a week later.

My final annual notification is in a few weeks anyway as it happens so not a huge deal!

Glad to hear things are moving forward, you deserve a chance! With your previous experience and work ethic I’d hope they’d value you being on the team.

Quick Q from me, how involved is your ppu in all of this?

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Fighting or Accepting - its difficult to know which is right and when.

That makes a lot of sense- hope you get the contract signed and such. Keep us updated.

Of course!

It's in retail management - So basically store manager for a large, known UK-based retail (grocery/food) company. From my hunt online it appears they don't do DBS/Disclosure checks either which is obviously a plus! I wasn't keen on going back to retail as I managed to escape it a while back but I can't really be that picky in my current state so at least it'd be something to get me going again.

Now I will say there is a slight caveat to this - This role was helped along a bit by the job centre/DWP. As I have been unemployed for over 12 months they have a system up here in Scotland called the Long Term Unemployment scheme. It aims to help people get back into work that might have additional barriers (such as criminal convictions, disabilities etc.) good staff that would potentially otherwise be looked over. The employer must guarantee an interview with these candidates before publicly posting the job(s) they have available, in exchange should they take on someone from this program then the majority of their wages will be covered by DWP (I can't remember the full number but I believe its about 90%) so the company is incentivised to at least give someone a shot, they can choose to take the person on permanently or up to a maximum of 6 months. The DWP will pay those wages for up to 6m then the company needs to pay and deal as applicable.

So I'm not sure if I would've gotten as far in the recruitment process were it not for the DWP giving that help.

I'm more than happy to answer any other questions.

Is it okay to ask the sector or industry?