Medical form
Once you have provided details of the preferred candidate, a pre-employment health questionnaire will be emailed to the candidate as part of the ‘proceed to offer’ letter.
They will be asked to complete the form and return it to the Occupational Health team via e-mail.
When the Occupational Health team receive the questionnaire from the candidate, a nurse examines the answers and assesses whether the candidate appears fit for the job in question.
If the candidate is fit for the post, Occupational Health will then inform the Recruitment Team of the outcome and forward the form on to them for it to be placed on the candidate’s Personal file. You can check on Recruit to see if the Recruitment Team have received the health questionnaire information and what the outcome is.
In most cases there are no issues and the appointment can proceed, subject to other successful checks.
Some posts which are particularly physically demanding require all successful applicants to have an appointment with the Occupational Health team.
If the Occupational Health team need to investigate a candidate’s health further, they will send the candidate an email or a letter if an email address has not been provided asking them to contact them in order to arrange an appointment.
After this, the Occupational Health team will confirm any recommendations including things like making reasonable adjustments and a workplace assessment.
In very rare instances, they will advise that the candidate is not suitable for employment but in other cases they will leave the decision about whether the candidate is suitable for employment to you, you will be sent a copy of the email from the recruitment team if this is the case.
You should consider all the information you have been given, whether reasonable adjustments can be put into place or whether this would not be practicable. If you are not sure about what reasonable adjustments could be offered, contact your occupational health for more advice.
There is a wide range of aids available and adaptations which can be made to enable suitable candidates to take up employment.
If an internal candidate is successful in gaining a new role which includes lifting or carrying, it is sometimes necessary for a health questionnaire to be completed so that their suitability for the new role can be confirmed.
The Recruitment Team will ask for a further form to be completed if needed, but you can seek advice from Occupational Health if required.
Criminal Records and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
Our application form includes information about criminal records. If at any point in the interview process, the preferred candidate has disclosed to you any information about their criminal record, you should discuss the circumstances with them and if successful at the interview stage you will need to wait for the DBS certificate to confirm the caution or conviction.
You will receive a Trace Approval form from the DBS Team and on here you can confirm your reasons to approve or reject their application to work. This Trace approval form will need to be sent to the Assistant Director for them to decide whether the disclosed information is relevant to the post in question, and if so, how it should affect the recruitment decision.
When approved or declined please e mail: dbs@derbyshire.gov.uk
If you are the manager of a post which requires a DBS check you should follow the policy and guidance for the necessary procedures for Criminal background checks.
After all checks have been received - satisfactory
When all checks have been received, the Recruitment Team will contact you and ask you to agree a start date with the successful candidate. You must confirm a start date so that a contract can be issued.
After all checks have been received – unsatisfactory
If you are not happy with one or more of the checks and have discussed the situation with your HR Business Partner, you need not proceed with the appointment.
You need to contact the candidate and inform them that the offer is being withdrawn. You should then notify the Recruitment Team and they will follow up with a letter confirming the offer has been withdrawn.
You may wish to keep details of your second and third choice candidates to hand, if they were also appointable, for this eventuality and proceed to appoint them instead.