Agency compliance, what good looks like

A staffing agency that supplies temporary workers is an employment business under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003. Those regulations set a legal floor for what the agency must check and what it must tell you before it supplies anyone. This is that floor, what a well-run agency adds on top, and what you can reasonably ask to see.

What the law already requires the agency to do

• Confirm the worker's identity and right to work before supply (Regulation 19).
• For work with vulnerable people, obtain the worker's qualifications and authorisations, and take all reasonably practicable steps to confirm the worker is suitable for the role, before supplying them. Where it cannot obtain a document, it must tell you what is missing and what it did to try (Regulation 22).
• Give you the information it holds about the worker, including experience and qualifications, and confirm the worker is willing to do the work. This can be spoken first but must be in writing within three business days (Regulation 21).

What a well-run agency checks as standard

• Enhanced DBS at the level the role requires. Roles providing healthcare or personal care to adults are usually regulated activity, which makes them eligible for an Enhanced check with the adults' barred list. A disclosure should be risk-assessed by a named person, not waved through and not refused on sight.
• Professional registration confirmed directly with the regulator for nurses, the NMC, and rechecked rather than taken on trust from a certificate.
• Two verified references, including the most recent care employer, confirmed by call-back.
• Full employment history with every gap explained.
• Health declaration completed and fitness confirmed.
• Mandatory training complete and in date, checked against a recognised framework. Skills for Care publishes the statutory and mandatory training guide that sets the baseline for adult social care.
• Practical skills assessed in practice, not by e-learning certificate alone. The guidance is explicit that for medicines, staff should be both trained and assessed as competent before they administer.
• Oliver McGowan training on learning disability and autism.

Evidence you are entitled to ask for

• A worker compliance profile before the first shift, showing the checks done and their dates. It should not contain the worker's health information, DBS certificate content, home address or date of birth. You are confirming checks happened, not collecting personal data.
• Confirmation of employers' liability insurance. An employer must hold at least the legal minimum with an authorised insurer under the Employers' Liability (Compulsory Insurance) Act 1969.
• Confirmation of the agency's regulatory position. An agency that supplies temporary staff is an employment business, not a CQC-registered provider. Be cautious of any staffing agency that describes itself as CQC registered for supplying workers.

Four questions that sort good from average

• How is medication competency evidenced, by certificate or by observed practice?
• Who risk-assesses a DBS disclosure, and how is it recorded?
• How often is NMC registration rechecked?
• What happens to a worker's availability the day a mandatory certificate expires?

Capegold Care has a team with experience in care and nursing who know how care homes run, and they set the standard for who joins our register and what competence we accept. Employment business under the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct Regulations 2003. Landline 01823 212 811. Mobile 07460 246 863. Text 07576 577 935. admin@capegoldcare.co.uk

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