The five-minute check before you let an agency worker start

Most cover goes fine. The times it does not tend to share a cause, which is that a worker started a shift before anyone confirmed the basics. Not out of carelessness, but because it is 6am, someone has called in sick, and the pressure is to get a body on the floor.

It is worth slowing down for two minutes, because the responsibility does not transfer with the worker. Regulation 19 of the 2014 Regulations, on fit and proper persons employed, applies to agency and bank staff in your service, not only to people on your payroll. If an agency worker is not who or what they were said to be, that is your home's problem to answer for at inspection.

The good news is that the check is short. Before the shift, you want a worker profile in advance that names the role, shows a photograph and lists the checks with dates. You want the role to match what you asked for. You want registration confirmed if the role needs it, and you can check a nurse's NMC PIN yourself in under a minute, for free, on the NMC register. When the worker arrives, you want the face to match the profile, and you want to give them the site induction before they touch anything.

We have put the whole thing on a single page you can print and keep by the phone. It is not about our agency. It is the check we would want any home to run on any worker, including ours. Open the nursing home cover checklist.

This article is general commentary from our own experience running a healthcare staffing agency. It is not legal advice.