Recruitment policy

All new employees must go through a health clearance before their appointment. Our occupational health provider carries this out.  

We will arrange for a health questionnaire to be sent to the candidate via our online portal. Occupational health will notify the employee's manager of: 

• any reasonable adjustments required 
• any other health concern that the manager needs to be aware of, in agreement with the employee

Compliance with data protection 

We process personal data collected during the recruitment process as per our data protection policy. This covers processing special categories of personal data and criminal records data.  

We hold data collected as part of the recruitment process securely. It is only accessed by, and disclosed to, individuals involved in managing the recruitment exercise. 

Inappropriate access or disclosure of job applicant data constitutes a data breach. It should be reported immediately as per our data protection policy. It may also constitute a disciplinary offence and would be dealt with under our disciplinary policy.

Proper Officer process

The proper officer process must be completed before a conditional offer is made, under the circumstances set out below.

Chief Officers are appointed by the appointments committee, which includes 12 councillors and at least one executive councillor. Chief Officers includes the roles of Head of Paid Service and Executive Directors.

Following an appointment, all executive councillors are asked whether they have a well-founded objection against the decision. An offer of employment as a Chief Officer can only be confirmed if no well-founded objection has been made by any member of the Executive.

This process is set out in Part 4 pages 97/98 of the Constitution and should be managed by the Proper Officer (Head of Paid Service), or the nominated Executive Director where the Head of Paid Service is being appointed to, once notified by the Chairman of the Appointments Committee.

Where the Head of Paid Service is being appointed, the full Council must approve that appointment before an offer of appointment is made.

The Proper Officer process is administered by the Head of HR. 

The Proper Officer process also applies to Assistant Director, Director appointments and all Officers (other than clerical and administrative staff) who report directly to the Head of Paid Service; this may on occasion refer to Heads of Service. The appointments committee process does not apply to these roles.

Once the preferred candidate has been identified, they are informed that they are the preferred candidate subject to the Proper Officer process. The candidate's references can be requested during the Proper Officer process with the candidate's consent. Once concluded, a conditional offer of employment can be made.

When all pre-employment checks have been completed the written final offer can be issued.