Pre-employment checks for health and care volunteers
Applies to England
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
Between 19 September and 18 November 2023, the government sought views on a proposal to remove the statutory requirement for a full employment history when appointing health and care volunteers. We received 160 responses from individuals, organisations, healthcare professionals, voluntary sector organisations and members of the public. Responses to the consultation demonstrated an appetite for changes to the existing regulations on the volunteer full employment history pre-employment check.
In response to the feedback received and stakeholder engagement and policy development, we have set out our finalised policy position and will be taking forward legislative action to remove the statutory requirement for full employment history for volunteers in health and social care involved in regulated activity. We have published our response to the consultation including an analysis of the responses to the individual questions.
Original consultation
Consultation description
This consultation sets out our proposal to change the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 to remove the need to obtain a full employment history when appointing health and care volunteers.
The consultation asks whether the full employment history requirement poses challenges to the appointment process and whether it is necessary to inform appointment decisions. We’re also seeking to understand whether the remaining required pre-employment checks would be enough to ensure the suitability of volunteer applicants.
We’re seeking views from:
- service providers
- volunteer managers
- voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) organisations
- volunteers
- staff and the public
Documents
Updates to this page
Last updated 18 December 2023 + show all updates
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Added consultation response.
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First published.