How can I handle disclosure for applicants or employees?

How do I assess it correctly - is there a guide?

Niacro recommends that in order to fairly and safely assess criminal record information received by applicants for jobs, volunteer roles or educational courses that a ‘panel’ is formed. By working on a panel model, it ensures a common sense, evidence-based approach is taken, and that proper safeguarding assessments and fairness of decision making can be easily evidenced.

What are ‘Disclosure Panels’?

Disclosure panels are when a small number of appropriate people are brought together specifically to carry out assessments of criminal record information. This guide is aimed at assessing criminal record information disclosed during recruitment into work/volunteering or enrolment in education or training.

The panel will be responsible for risk assessing the information the candidate provides against the duties of the role/course prospectus they are applying for.

Both criminal record information and any supporting evidence (disclosure statements, references, other background information) will be reviewed.

In some cases, the panel may choose to hold a focused interview, either face to face or through video calls, to ask further questions and get a sense of the candidate’s suitability.

They will make a recommendation as to whether or not the candidate’s criminal record makes them suitable for the role/course. The decision of whether or not to proceed with the candidate should then be signed off by senior management. It may be the CEO/Head of faculties or the Executive committee for example.

The chain of decision-making should be written into the organisation’s policies and procedures. Appointed members, taking part in Disclosure Panels should be properly trained and up to date with current rehabilitation legislation.

What is the purpose of the Disclosure Panel?

The purpose of the panel is to make evidence-based decisions on the person’s suitability for the role/course after taking account of all the information available. They are also responsible for deciding on who needs to be informed of the decisions and if any potential adjustments need to be made to the role to mitigate risk. It should be noted that sometimes the adjustments are made to protect the candidate rather than the organisation.

Some of the areas that the disclosure panel might investigate include:

• The relevance of the offence(s) to the role
• The length of time since the offence(s)
• Are there any licence conditions or other restrictions currently still in place?
• The seriousness of the offence(s)
• Any patterns and repetition of offending that need to be explored
• Any evidence of mitigating circumstances / underlying factors
• Any evidence of reform and rehabilitation
• Any third-party evidence such as references or reports
• If the experience helped them change for the better
• Plausibility of explanations given