Our Recruitment Philosophy
Employment Equality Policy Statement
The Council commits to promoting best employment equality practice in its efforts to eliminate discrimination and create working environments where all are treated fairly and with respect. The Council believes:
- A workforce that reflects the diversity of local communities can best serve the citizens of Leicester;
- All people should have an equal chance to apply for and be considered for jobs;
- Harassment, bullying and discrimination are not acceptable; and,
- People’s differences should be valued and made the most of.
As an employer, the Council aims to achieve equality of opportunity in employment by undertaking to:
- Comply fully with and implement legal requirements and employment guidance;
- Ensure all employees are aware of the Council’s Employment Equality Policy Statement through training and guidance;
- Create working environments that promote fair and equal opportunities;
- Develop, implement and publish plans for employment equality;
- Monitor the existing workforce and job applicants to see if the policy is working and take action to deal with under-representation;
- Regularly monitor and review all employment procedures and make changes to them where they are found to be discriminatory;
- Take seriously any concerns that an existing employee or job applicant raises about discrimination, harassment or bullying.
The Council is committed to the employment of disabled people.
- It has adopted the Social Model of disability. This model sees an inability to walk as an impairment, and not being able to enter a building because the entrance is up a flight of steps as a disability. Disability is therefore imposed on disabled people and refers to the oppression which people with physical, sensory or intellectual impairments, or those who are mental health system survivors, experience as a result of prejudicial attitudes and discriminatory actions. This is why we use the term disabled people rather than people with disabilities.
- The Council will make reasonable adjustments to working conditions or physical environments and will provide aids, adaptations, equipment and support where necessary for a disabled person to overcome the practical effects of a disability.
- We also believe that by making reasonable adjustments we can enable all our employees to provide the best possible service to our customers.
Disabled Job Applicants
All employees involved in the recruitment of people to the Council are made aware of their duty to ensure that the interview and any test (s) are accessible and fair to all job applicants. Authorised recruiters are expected to undertake the following steps to ensure all candidates have an equal chance of demonstrating their skill and abilities.
Therefore, they will:
- Ask you if you have any access requirements, where this not evident in your application form. At this stage you will be given an outline of the interview (and test) arrangements;
- Provide, as far as possible, the adjustments you require;
- Seek advice from you and, where appropriate, experts to help meet your access needs;
- Confine questions about your impairment or disability to any barriers and adjustments;
- Accept your better judgement and assurances that you are able to complete a task required by the job, whether this is done in an adjusted way or not.
Our statutory duty to monitor the employment rates of disabled people requires us to use the definition of disability in the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act. You are, therefore, asked to tell us if you have a disability under this definition. Given that the Council has adopted the ‘Social Model’ of disability, you are invited also to tell us if you consider yourself to be a disabled person using the Council’s ‘Social Model’ definition of disabilities which is also described in section C of the monitoring information in the application form.
Positive Action and Disabled Applicants
In our efforts to improve the representation of disabled people in the Council’s workforce, disabled applicants meeting all of the essential criteria for a job will be shortlisted for interview (or test).
Job Sharing
The Council operates a Job Sharing scheme which means that all applicants can apply for a post on a job share basis. Generally speaking, this allows two people to voluntarily share the responsibilities of one full time job. All applications to job share will be treated on their merit but the Council’s service is paramount and therefore requests cannot always be accommodated where granting the request would mean that it would be to the Council’s detriment.
If you are appointed to the post, and your request to job share can be granted, the remaining hours will be advertised. If the other half of the job is not filled after six months, you may be asked if you wish to work full time. If this is not suitable, and the job needs to be filled for the full time hours, we will try to find you a suitable alternative job in accordance with the Council’s Redeployment Procedure.
Internal applicants to job-share vacancies are required to advise their line manager/supervisor of their intention to apply for any job share vacancy, so that discussions may take place on potential implications.
You may request to work on a job share basis and specify the number of hours you would like to work. If you are shortlisted for interview, the panel may discuss your request with you. Should you require further advice on job sharing, please contact the HR/Personnel section of the post you are applying for.
Smoking Policy
The Council operates a Smoking Policy to protect employees from second hand smoke exposure. Workplace restrictions in line with legislation are in place to encourage employees to stop smoking and demonstrate the City Council’s commitment to its health leadership role. This includes no smoking on Council sites and no allowance for smoking breaks during work time. Should you require further information about this, please speak to the HR/Personnel section of the post you are applying for.
Our Duty to Job Applicants under the
Rehabilitation of Offenders Act
Having a criminal record may not necessarily prevent you from being considered for employment with Leicester City Council. Leicester City Council acknowledges its duty, under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, to ensure ex-offenders who have not re-offended for a certain period of time since their conviction, are not discriminated against when they apply for employment with the Council. To fulfil its duty the Council will undertake to:
- Comply fully with the requirements under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and any related good practice guidance;
- Only obtain criminal record disclosures for posts that are exempt under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exemptions Order) 1975
- Obtain disclosures for successful job applicants only;
- Ensure applicants are able to self disclose any convictions at the earliest opportunity, normally as part of the application for employment;
- Train those involved in making recruitment decisions on the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exempts Order) 1975;
- Keep information relating to offences confidential;
- Provide reasons where we have withdrawn an offer of appointment due to information supplied by an applicant in their application form or through the processing of a disclosure with the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB).
Our Duty to Vulnerable People in Our Care
The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 also provides certain exemptions in order to protect vulnerable groups within society.
This includes posts involving access to children, young people, older people, drug and alcohol mis-users, mentally or physically disabled people and chronically sick people. Jobs involving the administration of justice, and other financial posts are also exempt under the Act.
The Council takes very seriously its duty to ensure people placed in its care are safe, secure, and not subject to abuse of any kind. It will use the exempted post provisions of the Act when recruiting to posts working with children or vulnerable adults.
This will involve rigorous checks and verification processes for applicants who are successfully appointed.
If you are applying for an exempted post, you are expected to:
- Complete application form B accurately and fully and provide an explanation for any gaps in your employment;
- Reveal, as part of your application details, both spent and unspent convictions, reprimands, cautions, final warnings and any police investigations being processed following allegations made against you;
- Give consent to the Council to obtain a Disclosure from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) as is permitted under the Police Act 1997, which will show details of any spent and unspent convictions, reprimands, cautions, final warnings held on the Police National Computer. For enhanced disclosures details of non-conviction information will also be sought from police records.
Please note that the CRB Code of Practice may be accessed from www.crb.gov.uk/PDF/code_of_practice.pdf
Should you have any difficulty in obtaining this, it is also available upon request from the Jobshop.
- Expect the Council to contact any of your previous employers or educational establishments in order to verify the information you provide to us during the recruitment process;
- Note that the falsification of your application form is a serious matter and will normally result in your application being rejected.
Where this is evident following your appointment then this will result in disciplinary action, which may ultimately lead to your dismissal from employment with the Council. Note that where an offer of an appointment is withdrawn as a result of the processing of information supplied with regards to an applicant’s criminal record, either in the application form or through processing of a CRB disclosure, there is no right of appeal under the Council’s Recruitment Complaints procedure.
Working in the UK
Under the Asylum & Immigration Act 1996, it is a criminal offence to employ anyone who is not entitled to live or work in the United Kingdom. In order to comply with this requirement, the Council will ask you to provide evidence of one or more of the following documents should your application be successful:
1) A passport confirming that you are a citizen of a European Economic Area country or which shows that you are otherwise entitled to live and work in the UK.
2) A document from a previous employer, the Inland Revenue, Benefits Agency or the Employment service showing your name and National Insurance number. This could be a P45, a pay slip, a P60 or a National Insurance card.
3) A birth certificate confirming birth in the UK or the Republic of Ireland.
4) A letter from the Home Office confirming that you are allowed to work in the UK.
Political Restrictions
Some posts in the Council are politically restricted under the Local Government & Housing Act 1989 and the Local Government Officers (Political Restrictions) Regulations 1990. Where a political restriction is applied, this may mean that you may not be permitted, or may be restricted, in your political interests or associations. If the post you are applying for is politically restricted this will be shown on the enclosed Job Description.
For further details please contact the Departmental
HR/Personnel Section for this post.
The Council’s Recruitment Complaints procedure provides you with the right to redress where you feel you have been treated unfairly or discriminated against in our recruitment and selection process.
We will take action to ensure that anyone who works for the Council or who applies for a job with the Council will not be treated less favourably than anyone else because, for example, of their colour, race, ethnic or national origin, religion, gender, responsibility for dependents, disability, age, marital status, sexuality or trade union activity.
We have strict rules to ensure that our recruitment decisions are based on merit and our aim is to ensure that everyone has an equal chance to apply and be considered for jobs. We are not complacent, however, and accept that, regrettably, mistakes can occur. We therefore have a Recruitment and Selection Complaints procedure that:
- Provides you with a right of redress where you feel you have been treated unfairly or discriminated against in our recruitment and selection process
- Allows us to:
- Determine if any errors have occurred
- Put right or seek to minimise the effect of any error that may have been made where this is not possible, and;
- Learn from any mistakes and continuously improve our recruitment policies and processes, ensuring our commitment to high standards.
The Procedure
Provides for an independent review within specified time limits (see below). We will endeavour to keep you informed on the progress of our response and of any delays and the reasons behind them.
Your Right to Feedback
Before you decide to raise a formal complaint, we ask that you contact the HR/Personnel Section of the Department where the vacancy was/is held to arrange to obtain information on why your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. They will provide you with helpful and constructive verbal feedback (Disabled applicants may request a suitable alternative method).
Raising a Complaint and Timescales for bringing a complaint
If, after gaining feedback, you are still unhappy, then you will need to raise your complaint using one of the routes detailed overleaf, depending on the nature of your complaint.
Ways to make your complaint
You can raise your complaint by telephone, e-mail, fax or letter to the HR/Personnel section of the Department where the vacancy was/is held or in person at our Customer Service Section at the New Walk Centre and completing a Recruitment Complaints Form.
Acknowledging your complaint
Your complaint will normally be acknowledged within 24 hours of it being received. You will be given the name of the Investigating Officer who will be dealing with your complaint.