Hunter Healthcare Overseas Police Check Policy

Hunter Healthcare is a recruitment agency and business specialising in healthcare services.  We do not discriminate on the grounds of gender, sexual orientation, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, gender reassignment, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, disability or age.

This policy explains our policy and procedures that you will need to be aware in respect of Overseas Police Check should you wish to use our services, whether as a candidate or client. You should familiarise yourself with it and comply with it at all times. Any questions you may have with regard to its contents or what you have to do to comply with it should be referred to Rosanna Beckford, Head of Compliance at Hunter Healthcare.

This policy applies to our candidates, consultants, contractors and clients.  It does not form part of any agreement with us unless stated otherwise in our contract with you which will provided to you separately.

Our Head of Compliance has overall responsibility for this policy and for ensuring that our procedures comply with our legal obligations.

This policy is reviewed each year to ensure that its provisions continue to meet our legal obligations and reflect best practice.

When recruiting from overseas, or if an applicant has been living abroad for a period of six months or more, whether continuously or in total, an overseas police check or a certificate of good character may be required by the client. For further information and advice please refer to the NHS Employers Criminal record and barring checks https://www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/recruit/employment-checks/criminal-record-check or http://www.sia.homeoffice.gov.uk/Pages/home.aspx.

Candidates must apply for and receive the overseas police checks themselves. More information is in the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/criminal-records-checks-for-overseas-applicants.

This link provides specific details by country and provides information on how to apply for a criminal record check.

If the candidate does not have an overseas police check certificate, they should contact their relevant embassy to obtain one.  Our Hunter Healthcare Compliance Manager will also search the relevant national police website, if possible, as some countries facilitate an online application for overseas police checks.

If the candidate provides a non-UK Police Check, it must be dated no more than three months prior to their leaving their home country. If the document is not in English, it must be accompanied by a certified translation into English. These checks should be carried out in addition to DBS checks; the former to obtain clearance for the period before the individual came to UK and the latter to cover the period since they arrived in UK.

Steps to determine if Overseas Police Check required:

  1. If the candidate has been a resident of the UK for less than 6 consecutive months, an Overseas Police Check Certificate is required to be provided by the candidate, and this also applies to UK citizens returning from working abroad;
  2. If the candidate has been a UK resident for longer than 6 continuous months, then an Overseas Police Check Certificate is not required;
  3. If the candidate is intending to move to the UK in the near future it is required that the consultant or the compliance officer communicating with the candidate must advise the candidate to obtain an Overseas Police Check Certificate before departing their country of residency.

All overseas police checks must be accompanied by a certified translation into English.

Created: April 2019/Rosie Beckford/Overseas Police Check Policy/Version 2/Review date: April 2022