This factsheet covers issues involved in recruiting ex-offenders as volunteers. It is a result of joint training run by APEX Scotland and Volunteer Centre Edinburgh.

• Why ex-offenders?
• Recruitment procedures and equal opportunities
  • The Application Form
  • Disclosures
  • Handling Disclosure Information
  • References
• How do you ask about a criminal record?
• How relevant are offences?
• When do convictions become spent?
• When to exclude ex-offenders?
• Further advice
• Rehabilitation times
• Continuing support

Why Ex-Offenders?

• One in four men and one in nine women have a criminal conviction of some kind by the time they are 24 years old. It is likely therefore that you will meet ex-offenders who wish to volunteer.
• The social inclusion agenda places a moral (and often funding) incentive on us to go the extra mile in engaging with people who tend to marginalised
• Volunteering is likely to be seen as a way to improve the job prospects of ex-offenders by building their work place skills, their confidence and giving them a reference.

Recruitment procedures and equal opportunities

The application form:

You can ask the individual to disclose information about criminal records voluntarily. Under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act, ex-offenders normally have the right not to reveal spent (old) convictions. However, where work involves contact with 'vulnerable' people, organisations can require applicants to declare spent convictions too. You could word a question on the application form something like this:

'Because of the nature of the work, [befriending older people], you are required by the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 to declare all criminal convictions including those which are spent'. (from www.volunteering.org.uk)

To ensure confidentiality you could ask the person to return information about criminal records on a separate piece of paper, and ask it to be returned in a sealed envelope, attached to the application form, marked private and confidential.

Reassure the person that while it is necessary to ask for information on convictions, they will not necessarily be excluded from volunteering should they have convictions which are not relevant to the work carried out.

Disclosures (Police Checks)

A government agency called Disclosure Scotland administers police checks - now called Disclosures. Voluntary agencies can access free Disclosure information for volunteers by registering with the Central Registered Body in Scotland (CRBS). There are three levels of disclosure: Basic Disclosure, Standard Disclosure and Enhanced Disclosure. Access to the different levels of disclosure depends on the exposure the volunteer is likely to have to vulnerable or young people in the course of their work. Organisations wanting access to Disclosures are required to have the following policies where relevant: A child protection policy, policy on the handling of disclosure information, a policy on the protection of vulnerable adults and a policy on the recruitment of ex-offenders. You can get samples of some of these from our resources page. For more information on how to access Disclosures contact Jill Smith at the CRBS: jill.smith@vds.org.uk, Tel: 01786 849777.

Handling Disclosure Information and Data Protection

A code of practice for handling disclosure information is available from Disclosure Scotland at http://www.scro.police.uk/discscot.htm. This code is published under the 1997 Police Act. Organisations obtaining disclosure information must abide by its guidelines. There is also an obligation to comply fully with the Data Protection Act.

The main points to observe are:

• Storage: Disclosure information is confidential. It must be stored securely in a lockable container, and accessed only by those whose duties require them to access it
• Handling: Disclosure information should only be passed on to those authorised to receive it in the course of their duties. It is an offence to pass information on to anyone not authorised to receive it.
• Usage: Disclosure information should only be for the purposes for which the applicant's consent has been given.
• Retention: Information should not be stored longer than absolutely necessary (this might be 6 months)
• Disposal: Information should be destroyed by secure means e.g. shredding. At no point while awaiting destruction should information be kept in an insecure manner.
• Policy & Procedure: Parties receiving Disclosure information must have a policy on the secure handling of information and undertake an audit to ensure that they are handling and disposing of Disclosure information in the appropriate manner. A sample policy on the handling of disclosure information is available via our website.

See our page on Data Protection.

References

If a person is giving a character reference, for example a probation officer or social worker, it might be helpful that a meeting is arranged between the prospective volunteer, the voluntary organisation and the referee. The organisation then has a known point of contact and are not taking on the weight of responsibility on their own.

How do you ask about a criminal record?

You should look at a criminal records declaration only after shortlisting. This protects the confidentiality of the people who haven't been shortlisted and helps ensure equal opportunities. For many voluntary posts, however, every applicant is interviewed.

The interview questions you could ask include:

• What was the crime?
• What was the sentence?
• What was the conviction?
• What were the circumstances at the time?
• What have you been doing since then?
• What have you learned from you experience of offending?

Statistically, ex-offenders in work are three times less likely to re-offend. Volunteering is a way to build skills and gain a reference that can lead to work. With proper recruitment procedures in place, ex-offenders are a group to consider realistically as a source of potential volunteers. That said, there are no guarantees, its a question of the degree of risk.

How relevant are offences?

Whether or not an offence is relevant to prospective voluntary work can take a lot of thought. It is not possible to just have a list of offences that you would not consider. Just the name of the offence is not enough to base a decision on. You also need to look at the context. e.g.

• When was the offence committed?
• How long was the sentence? (as an indication of the seriousness of the offence.)
• What is the task they are being asked to do?
• What support will they have?

In looking at whether a task is suitable, you need to do a risk assessment, looking at the whole context of the voluntary work and consider:

• Do they have unsupervised access to a vulnerable client group? Your first concern is the safety of the client group.
• Will they be working unsupervised with other workers who might be vulnerable?
• Will they have access to confidential information?

The organisation's policy needs to be able to adapt according to circumstances. It is not helpful to have a blanket approach, disbarring anyone with a criminal record. A risk assessment needs to be done for each situation.

When do convictions become spent?

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act covers the length of time taken for convictions to become spent. It can be very confusing to work out and there are occasions when people genuinely do not realise that an offence still needs to be declared. If there is a discrepancy therefore, between what is said and a Criminal Record Disclosure, don't always assume that an individual is trying to hide things.

The rehabilitation time is based on the sentence given rather than the actual time served. Rehabilitation periods get complicated if other offences are committed during the rehabilitation. If a summary offence is committed during the rehabilitation period of a previous conviction, then the rehabilitation period is not affected. If however, the second offence is more serious then neither conviction will become spent until the longer rehabilitation has expired.

Exempt Professions

The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exceptions) (Scotland) Order 2003 makes it clear that the act applies to volunteering as well as employment.

It is illegal for employers to discriminate on the grounds of a spent criminal conviction, unless the post is for an exempted profession.

For these professions, the ex-offender will have to disclose information about spent as well as current convictions, provided the employer states clearly on the application form or at the interview that the job applied for is excepted.

Excepted professions include the following categories:

• Work involving matters of national security.
• Work that brings a person into contact with vulnerable groups such as the infirm, the elderly, mentally ill and young people aged under 18 years.
• Certain professions with legal protection such as nurses or accountants.

It is the post which is excepted not the organisation.

When to exclude ex-offenders

If you are working with a vulnerable client group and the individual has a relevant offence and will be working unsupervised directly with that client group. If there is no indication that the individual has rehabilitated.

Rehabilitation Times for sentences less than 2.5 years

Sentence	Over 18	Under 18
6mths-2.5yrs	10yrs	5yrs
6mths or less	7yrs	3.5yrs
probation (after 5/95)	5yrs	2.5yrs
	or to the end of the probationary period.
Fines, community service order and supervised attendance orders	5yrs	2.5yrs
Absolute discharge/ admonishment	6mths	6mths

Continuing Support

Remember the successful involvement of ex-offenders as volunteers is not only about recruitment and selection. Like all volunteers they require ongoing support and supervision to ensure they remain motivated, interested, reliable and, most importantly, continue to enjoy their voluntary work with you.

For further advice:

APEX Scotland
9 Great Stuart Street
Edinburgh
EH3 7TP
Tel: 0131 220 0130
Fax: 0131 220 6796
Lothian Unit:
Unit 1,
Bonnington Business Centre,
106 Jane Street,
Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 5HG
Tel: 0131 467 8300.

Apex Scotland is the only Scottish organisation with the sole aim of improving the employment and training prospects of offenders, ex-offenders and young people at risk.

Apex offers a range of information, vocational training, job preparation, job search and counselling services to the individual offender and ex-offender.

Apex also provides a training and consultancy service for private and public sector employers and the providers of further education and training. This involves reviewing recruitment policies and practice, producing guidelines and advice and training relevant staff in new procedures.

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See also:

Sample Policy on the Recuitment of Ex-offenders

Data Protection

[Updated May 2003]