After you submit an expression of interest through the Health and Social Care COVID-19 accelerated recruitment portal, your details will be passed to a central assignment team (Scotland@nhs.net) to place you in suitable post in Scotland, and to the COVID Recruitment Team (COVID19Recruitment@nes.scot.nhs.uk) to onboard you to the NHS Board that will employ you.

As part of the onboarding process you will be given access to Turas, NHS Education for Scotland’s single unified platform for Health and Social Care Professionals.  From here you will submit pre-employment information to allow the COVID Recruitment Team carry out all pre-employment checks and engage you on the payroll system of the NHS Board where you will be employed.

The COVID recruitment team will begin processing the required pre-employment checks to prepare you for starting work in a post in Scotland as quickly as possible. The type of checks you require will depend on which profession you work in and the type of post you have indicated an interest in. Information regarding each of the pre-employment checks can be found below.

NES has been asked to support the accelerated recruitment and employment of returners and students. This will mean a high volume of applicants will require pre employment checks to be completed as quickly as possible so that these workers can be brought in to provide essential support to frontline services as soon as possible. We anticipate over the coming weeks thousands of returners and students will require processing which means, we are unable to provide definitive timescales at this moment in time.

The purpose of a professional registration check is to assure employers that the applicant is qualified and competent to perform a particular role. It is intended to protect the public, ensuring that those who practice in a particular profession are committed to providing high standards of care.  

There are various regulatory bodies relevant to different clinical roles. If you are registered with a professional body, you will be asked to note your PIN/membership number when you register your interest in applying for a post in Scotland. As part of the pre-employment check process the COVID recruitment team will verify this for anyone who has applied for a post which requires professional registration. If the post you have applied for does not require this type of registration, the team will mark the check as ‘not required’ upon review.

The Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) membership scheme is managed and delivered by Disclosure Scotland. It helps ensure people whose behaviour makes them unsuitable to work with children and protected adults cannot do 'regulated work' with these vulnerable groups.

Anyone doing regulated work or intending to do regulated work with children or protected adults is required by NHS Scotland to apply for PVG Scheme membership.

There are two types of regulated work:

• Work with children (a child is a person under 18 years of age); and
• Work with protected adults (that is a person aged 16 or over in receipt of certain healthcare, welfare or community care services).

As part of the pre-employment check process for health and social care workers, a PVG check must be completed.

When you are given access to the Turas People system you will be prompted to complete a declaration to confirm that you are happy for the content of a Disclosure check to be shared with any host organisation you get placed in.

It has been agreed nationally that for anyone who is currently a student with an existing PVG membership, this check will be by proxy with the University. The COVID Recruitment Team will therefore mark this check as not applicable for any student applicants when reviewing their pre-employment checks on the Turas People system.

In order to process your application, we require copies (scans/photographs/screenshots) of three forms of identification documentation, of which at least one should be photographic, one must verify your right to work in the UK and one must provide proof of address. For example, passport, UK driver’s license (or visa for non-UK/EEA nationals to further verify right to work) and recent utility bill.

These documents must be uploaded to the Turas People system and a member of the COVID Recruitment Team will contact you to verify these documents.

A full list of acceptable ID documents can be found here.

Before an applicant can be considered for an appointment in a position of trust within NHS Scotland, we must be satisfied about their character and suitability. As part of the pre-employment check process, applicants will be asked to review and complete a Fitness to Practise declaration form on Turas People.

Please note that this check is only required for individuals applying for roles which require registration with a professional body.

Nursing & Midwifery

Nursing and Midwifery applicants should refer to sections 9-13 of the Covid-19 Emergency Temporary Registration Policy for registering with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.

An Occupational Health (OH) assessment refers to a process undertaken by an employer to assess whether an individual is capable and fit to undertake a particular role. Its primary purpose is to help prevent work-related illnesses, injuries and the spread of disease or infection.   

The extent of any OH assessment will be dependent on the requirements and risks associated with any given role which impact on the health and wellbeing of either the individual carrying out that role and/or any patients they may have contact with. OH assessments have an important role in helping employers identify and consider early on, any health condition or disability that may require:  

• adjustments being made to the workplace to enable the individual to safely carry out the duties they have been engaged to carry out  

• restrictions being placed on their duties, for example, exposure prone procedures (EPPs) for workers who have a blood borne virus which may impact on patients in their care. 

As part of the pre-employment check process, applicants must be reviewed by OH to ensure they are fit to do the post that they have been offered. 

If you have applied for a role and are currently a student, your current occupational health clearance as part of your studies may remain, in this scenario you would be required to complete a self-declaration form on Turas People. All other applicants will require to complete a questionnaire which will be reviewed by our occupational health service (NSS).

For any applicants who do not have a evidence of their immunisation record to upload to their form, please attach this document in its place.

You will be asked to complete a staff engagement form (SEF) on Turas People as part of the onboarding process. This will enable you to be placed on the relevant Health Board payroll when you start in post. Once all of your pre-employment checks are complete and you have been matched to a suitable post, the COVID recruitment team will process your SEF to engage you on the relevant Health Board payroll from your start date.