Overseas staff in the NHS – pre-employment checks
Podcast transcript 
We’re talking to Angela Canning, assistant director at Audit Scotland, about Audit Scotland’s latest report, Overseas staff in the NHS – pre-employment checks.
Angela, what’s this report about?
This report looks at whether NHS boards in Scotland are following their own procedures on pre-employment screening, or checks, of overseas staff. By overseas staff, the report covered staff recruited from outside the European Economic Area (EEA), which is the EU countries plus Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein. Swiss nationals have the same rights as EEA nationals.
And what have you found?
We found that at the five boards where Audit Scotland did detailed checks, there is evidence of high compliance with local procedures. We looked at 235 personnel records and the percentage containing evidence of pre-employment checks ranged from 90 to 99%, depending on the check.
At September 2007 the reported number of overseas staff in the NHS in Scotland was 1,161 members of staff, 89% cent of whom are doctors or nurses. This is likely to be an underestimate as it can be difficult for boards to identify accurate numbers of overseas staff, for example, those who have indefinite leave to remain in the UK.
Why did you do this report?
Security incidents in London and Glasgow earlier this year allegedly involved overseas staff working in the NHS, including the Royal Alexandra Hospital. Following these incidents the UK government ordered an investigation of the arrangements for recruiting overseas staff to work in the NHS. In Scotland the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Well Being also asked for an examination of whether pre-employment screening of overseas staff working in the NHS in Scotland is in line with guidelines.
We were approached to take part in the examination. Our report is based on the terms of reference set out by the Auditor General and focuses on whether NHS boards follow their own policies regarding pre-employment screening of overseas staff.
You mentioned that you found a high rate of compliance with the checks but that it’s possible boards are underestimating how many overseas staff work for them because they don’t have the complete figures. What do you want to see happen now??
It is for the Cabinet Secretary to make any policy decisions based on the events that occurred earlier this year and on any findings from this report or the Scottish Government’s own review.
However we have made a number of recommendations for boards to better understand the make-up of their workforce and to plan and manage that better, and for the Scottish Government.
In particular, we say NHS boards should:
•	prioritise the wider use of electronic personnel records to support better management information
•	and ensure consistent practice in record-keeping across the board area.
The Scottish Government should:
•	ensure that its electronic system used for workforce information contains a field in which to report immigration status.
OK Angela, thanks for your time.