If you are thinking about taking on an assistant, you already know the basic rule, even if nobody spelled it out for you: they cannot be left alone with children, given sole responsibility, or counted in your ratios until every check is complete. What trips people up is everything underneath that rule. A submitted application is not a completed check. A conditional offer is not approval. A pending disclosure is not clearance, whichever way you assume it might cut.
The safer recruitment basics
The basics are the same whoever and wherever you are. A clear role description. Identity and right to work confirmed. References taken up directly and actually checked, not just filed. Qualifications verified. Current vetting requirements checked for every assistant, volunteer, household member and anyone else with relevant access, since these vary by role, household status and nation, so check what your own regulator expects rather than assuming. A written record of why you appointed this person, kept securely, reviewed over time. And do not forget the employment side sits alongside the regulatory side: contract, pay, tax, insurance and pension obligations.
Where it genuinely differs by nation
This is the part worth reading carefully for your own nation rather than assuming your neighbour's process applies to you.
Scotland. Appropriate PVG Scheme disclosure checks are needed before any unsupervised access to children, alongside safe recruitment practice throughout, proper supervision while checks are pending, and any required variation to your registration confirmed with the Care Inspectorate.
England. An enhanced DBS certificate is required, including the children's barred list, plus a written suitability letter from Ofsted or your agency before the assistant is included in ratios.
Wales. CIW must be notified in advance through CIW Online, and suitability checks completed before the assistant starts. The enhanced DBS certificate must be less than three months old when submitted, unless the person is registered with the DBS Update Service, and responsibility for the assistant's suitability stays with you as the childminder, not with CIW.
Northern Ireland. An ordinary assistant is usually a Category 2 role under your Trust's vetting guidance, meaning enhanced AccessNI barred list vetting, references, health and Trust checks, a fit person assessment, and a Trust clearance letter, all completed before the assistant starts.
The thread that runs through all four nations
What holds across all four nations is that you need to know exactly what evidence your own regulator expects, in writing, before you rely on someone being ready to work, whether that is an Ofsted suitability letter in England, your own documented checks and CIW notification in Wales, PVG confirmation and Care Inspectorate correspondence in Scotland, or a Trust clearance letter in Northern Ireland. A phone call you remember is not the same as the written evidence your regulator actually requires.
I put the full checklist together, nation by nation, covering the shared safer recruitment basics and the specific vetting route for wherever you are registered. Free to use, free to share with anyone else taking this step. Message ASSISTANT to the Clariti Facebook page and I will send it over.
This checklist is a starting point, not a replacement for your regulator's current guidance. Check directly with the Care Inspectorate, Ofsted or your agency, CIW, or your HSC Trust before relying on it.