Introduction
International education recruitment poses particular challenges to child protection and safeguarding, as norms and standards of practice vary greatly. Safer recruitment is the key to wider and improved safeguarding within the international school community. We work closely with schools, teachers and educational organisations to safeguard and promote safer recruitment practices. Teacher Horizons expects all team members and candidates to share this commitment. Teacher Horizons has a designated safeguarding coordinator to ensure that all procedures meet expectations.
Objective
Our objective is to deter, identify and reject people who might abuse or are otherwise unsuited to working with children. We have appropriate procedures for recruitment and understand that at Teacher Horizons we are a key stakeholder and have a fundamental role in prevention.
Recruitment and selection procedures
Advertising
Job adverts include our commitment to safeguarding and safer recruitment. At this stage, candidates will be informed that they need to disclose any misconduct, and any false representation may result in the termination of Teacher Horizons’ support.
Teacher registration
CVs will be checked upon activation for formal teaching credentials. If invited to an adviser interview, advisers will check their working history and qualifications.
When they register their profile, we ask candidates to confirm the following two questions as part of our online sign-up process for teachers:
- Tick a box to confirm that you have never been known to any Children’s Services department or the Police as being a risk or potential risk to children.
- Tick a box to confirm you have never been the subject of any disciplinary investigation and/or sanction by any organisation due to concerns about your behaviour towards children.
These checks are displayed in a prominent place on the admin view of our international teachers’ profile pages so that our Advisers are notified if any candidate has not confirmed either of the above requirements.
We encourage all applicants to provide details of any prior criminal convictions at an early stage in the application process. When a candidate discloses any criminal convictions Teacher Horizons will follow the policy for Disclosing Previous Criminal Convictions.
Risk and disciplinary disclosure
All applicants are asked to disclose relevant history during the early stages of the application. This includes:
- Unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands, or warnings
- Any criminal record information required under the relevant safeguarding laws in the country where a candidate is applying to teach.
- Candidates are also welcomed to disclose any misconduct investigations or processes, which may affect their references or suitability. All this will be maintained in confidence.
All information is handled in strictest confidence and is not disclosed. However, failure to disclose a relevant conviction or caution, or any deliberate misrepresentation of information, may result in the termination of a candidate’s relationship with Teacher Horizons and notification to relevant agencies and partner schools. A disclosed conviction or caution does not automatically prevent a candidate from securing a position. Each case is assessed individually.
There is more information in our policy on Disclosure of Criminal Convictions and Misconduct.
References
References are collected and checked before the interview if possible.
- At least one, ideally three, confidential and professional references must include direct superiors (at least the Assistant Principal)
- At least two confidential references are secured from the last positions held by the candidates during the past six years (including SLT)
- Employment offers are contingent upon the completion of positive reference checks, as well as background checks.
Our references include the question – “Do you know of any reason that the applicant should not work with children?”. We would only put forward candidates whose referees all say ‘no’.
Current and former employers are informed that Teacher Horizons will disclose findings of any known misconduct and/or documented reason(s) for dismissal when contacted for references, following applicable legal requirements.
References are completed via the referee’s professional school email address so they can be trusted (and can’t be fraudulent).
If a referee answers the question ‘Would you rehire the candidate?’ By saying ‘with reservation’ or ‘would not rehire’ we call the referee to speak to them about their reasons for doing so. We reach out to them to require a video call with the Head of School to verify the candidate’s employment history and discuss the ‘with reservation’ or ‘would not rehire’. From this we decide whether we can continue to support the candidate and if so the best way forward. All of this is done in the confidence and is stored centrally.
Zoom interviews
Our advisers are qualified teachers and have participated in Child Protection and Safer Recruitment training with childsafegaurding.com. This is refreshed every two years.
Our Advisors explore and challenge any anomalies or gaps they identify in an international teaching candidate’s CV or employment history. All interviews with applicants include safeguarding questions (see Appendix A for examples).
If any issues regarding disciplinary action or allegations, cautions or convictions come to light, they will be discussed during the Zoom interview. Any concerns will be shared with the Teacher Horizons management team, and Safeguarding Coordinator, before proceeding with the candidate’s application or membership to Teacher Horizons.
If we think something looks or sounds particularly suspicious we will complete extensive online research on the candidate’s name.
The interview notes are recorded and retained. The Adviser completes and dates the interview on the candidate’s TH profile and on Salesforce.
Our advisers
We do background checks on all our International Advisers when they apply for the role. All of our International Advisers will have completed safeguarding training with childsafegaurding.com. Furthermore, as part of onboarding all new advisers receive specific safeguarding training from the Safeguarding Coordinator covering the processes and procedures within our organisation.
As well as giving regular updates when required, the Safeguarding Coordinator delivers bi-anual Safeguarding updates, and retains contact with organisations and schools throughout the year. When schools disclose safeguarding concerts the Safeguarding Coordinator leads in investigating recording and meeting with Heads of School.
All of the above information is available to schools we work with.
We expect school recruiters to carry out their own safeguarding and reference checks as well.
Privacy policy | Equality and diversity policy | T&Cs for teachers | T&Cs for schools | Safeguarding and safer recruitment policy