Emery contacted our helpline as he needed some disclosure advice for a job he was applying for in a hospital.
He was aware that his conviction was spent but the question on the hospital application form asked:
“Do you have any cautions or convictions that would not currently be filtered by the DBS”?
The helpline advisor explained that as the role was based in a hospital where there was the opportunity for Emery to have access to patients (some of whom would be children) then the employer was entitled to carry out an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Due to the nature of Emery’s offence, his conviction would not be eligible for filtering and he would therefore need to disclose it to the employer.
Despite Emery believing that the employer would automatically reject his application once they knew it was for a sexual offence, he decided that he would still apply.
We provided Emery with some examples of self-disclosure statements and highlighted some of the points he should include in his statement.
Emry got back in touch a couple of months later to say that he had been short-listed and interviewed for the job. He said that he’d used the self-disclosure statement he’d written as an aid to help him disclose at the end of the interview and although he’d found it really difficult to talk about his conviction, he’d managed to answer all the questions the employer had asked him. A couple of days later, Emery was delighted to hear that he’d been offered the job.
Notes about this case study
This case study relates to Unlock’s helpline.
Names and details have been changed to protect the identity of those involved.
Published April 2023.
