Healthcare pre-employment checks — the complete CQC and NHS checklist

The full pre-employment checklist for CQC-registered healthcare providers

CQC Regulation 19 requires healthcare providers to carry out the following checks before employing any person in a regulated activity: verification of identity with photographic evidence, enhanced DBS check with barred list check, verification of right to work in the UK, verification of professional registration and qualifications, employment history covering three years with gaps explained, and a minimum of two written employment references covering three years and addressing safeguarding suitability. All checks must be documented and retained on the staff recruitment file.

Why employment references are the most frequently failed check at CQC inspection

CQC inspection findings consistently identify employment references as one of the most frequently inadequate elements of healthcare safe recruitment files. Common findings include telephone references rather than written documentation, references that do not address safeguarding suitability, references that do not cover three years of history, missing candidate consent, and no audit trail. Each of these is a Regulation 19 breach that can affect inspection ratings.

RefAssure eliminates all of these failure points automatically. Every reference is written, every reference asks safeguarding suitability, every reference is obtained directly from the referee, candidate consent is documented before contact, and a full timestamped audit trail is generated in every PDF report. Healthcare employers using RefAssure have inspection-ready reference documentation for every appointment without additional administration.