Reference checking audit trail for agencies — what compliance evidence must contain

What a compliant agency reference audit trail must contain

A compliant recruitment agency reference audit trail should document: the date and time candidate consent was collected and the method by which it was obtained; the date and time the reference request was sent to each referee; the dates and times of each chase message sent; the date and time the reference was submitted by the referee; the written reference responses in full; and confirmation that the reference was returned before the candidate began in role. An email thread does not constitute a compliant audit trail — it is not structured, not searchable and not producible at short notice.

When agencies need to produce audit trail evidence

Agencies are asked to produce reference audit trail evidence in several circumstances — client SLA audits, where clients want to verify that references were completed within agreed timescales; regulatory inspection, where CQC, Ofsted or NHS auditors review an agency's reference process for placed workers in regulated settings; legal proceedings, where evidence of the reference process is relevant to a dispute about a placed candidate; and internal audits, where agency management review compliance with their own reference checking standards.

RefAssure generates a PDF for every completed reference containing all of the audit trail elements required for all of these circumstances — timestamped consent, request sent, chasers sent, reference received, full written responses. This document is generated automatically on completion and retained in the dashboard. It can be produced in seconds for any audit or inspection, for any reference, regardless of when it was completed. From 99p per reference.