NHS Recruitment

[AXCS]

I’ve read a few posts regarding this but wonder if anyone has any experience with NHS recruitment or Trac.

I’ve been offered a band 2 post a couple of weeks ago now, about a week later I got a conditional offer letter. I immediately filled in all forms and sent back and had my pre employment ID check a couple of days later.
I’ve had notification today that my DBS is being processed so that’s progress.

one reference says ‘complete’ but the other just says it’s been sent and ‘awaiting reply’. This is my current employer and they’ve told me they’ve sent it back though HR at current employment only provide a basic letter stating basic details of employment dates, job titles etc confirming the employment. Will NHS require more info? Is this why if hasn’t been updated to ‘received’ or ‘complete’?

also waiting on Occupational Health, Trac just says ‘with OH’ after I sent back my OH forms and immunisation list. It’s a band 2 admin job and I didn’t flag anything in forms that would raise any concerns.

Any suggestions on how long those remaining tasks should take? I would LOVE to get a start date soon!

any NHS recruitment experience would be appreciated! I’m not currently in the NHS, and never worked for them before.

Thanks!

NHS HR is shit and notoriously slow!

I have heard that a few times!

Mine took forever! I was offered the job in the April and my start date wasnt until August 🙄

I just don’t want my references holding stuff up… and there’s nobody to actually speak to in the recruitment team! They just don’t acknowledge you.

I was interviewed in February and started in December.

Do not be afraid to email via Trac and query anything. ie, my reference is showing outstanding but my employer had sent it. Copy in the person who is employing you do they know they need to go onto Trac and approve. DBS not in their hands but not taking too long currently. OH report is another thing that often gets sent back to HR and not updated straight away. I would chase them on a weekly basis as to what hold up is

jeez that’s a while!

Thanks I will do - I was wondering how often would be reasonable to contact! I think weekly sounds like a good plan.

Last year I was offered a post at the start of august and started in the middle of November.

I’d worked for the same health board that both jobs are in for over 20 years……..

DH's took 2 months for a GP job

3-4 months minimum if you are lucky and expect to chase it all up yourself, send documents duplicate times and get totally and utterly fed up!

Really depends on the Trust I'm afraid. Im waiting to start a new job and the new trust have been super speedy and organised at every step. Im only waiting to start as I have a 12 week notice period

NHS recruitment is excruciatingly slow. It's not abnormal in my trust for people to wait 5+ months, and that's for internal staff too! I am internal and been offered a band 4 job, took 3 weeks to get the offer letter then apparently you've now got to have an appointment to hand the forms in (even though they've already had them when I started my current job) but they couldn't give me an appointment for over a month after receiving the letter so there almost 2 months wasted already 🥴

I was offered my post in May and started in August, a couple of years later I applied for another post in the same hospital at the same band and it took so long I thought I hadn't got the job!!!! I was gobsmacked when my supervisor informed me that she had been asked to provide a reference for me. So even internal jobs can be slow, good luck in your new job .

They are always very slow, I was offered a job in March and didn't start until July! In the end I rang trac and the next day everything went through

NHS HR are the worst. I got a “promotion” within the same department and my manager gave me a very optimistic start date for my new role. I confirmed my start date and filled out all the documents. When I got paid that month I was still on my old salary. I called to complain and they adjusted my pay, then got it wrong for another 4 months in a row.

NHS recruitment is painfully slow.

I got a promotion within the same team, had to go through all the rigmarole of Occ Health, ID checks and DBS despite already working there, took ages and it was literally another post within exactly the same team. I think I technically started the role a few days before it was actually all sorted, but this is unusual and was agreed by management.

The reference shouldn’t be an issue, that’s what the NHS does for external references now, we have to send all external requests to a references team.

I’d expect a good 3-4 months wait. I interviewed beginning of July and started mid October.

Did you ring Trac or the recruitment team? I think they’re different?

NHS is dreadful. As is payroll. Trac is a nightmare to use as a manager too. Don't be afraid to drop them a line, including the person that recruited you and check that everything is OK. As a recruiting manager sometimes you aren't even aware that an applicants job offer has got stuck.

If your current employer has sent a standard reference and not completed it on the online form provided by Trac that is probably why it's not showing as complete. With OH it could be that the recruitment team haven't updated Trac to say it's competed, or it could mean that it's currently still with OH being reviewed. Email the recruitment team via the trac email address and ask for an updated

Hi, I used to work in recruitment.

Best advice to give you is keep chasing the staff.

Regards to your health clearance they are back logged and are behind with clearances.

References can be that they need an recent one or the referee has not replied or recruitment has asked for an clarification that takes time too.

Untill all your recruitment process has not been completed on trac you will not recieve an start date.

Once your ID check in person has been completed and your file completion then you will be recruited.

Hope this helps.

Email the contact on the vacancy.

Thanks all

I’ve just had an email now (8pm ish) from Trac saying they haven’t received a reference from a current employer yet. i think this is maybe an automated email as it’s been so many days?

but I’ve been assured it’s been sent back to Trac but by email in letter format… so I’m thinking they just haven’t logged into my account and actually read the reference / response from my current employer.

I’ve emailed Trac back but any messages I’ve sent so far have been ignored/not read so not holding out much help. I might ring them tomorrow afternoon if I’ve heard nothing back by then?!

One positive update - after emailing a few times and getting nothing back - finally found a number and got through to someone.

he looked and said the reference has been received but hasn’t been checked by the team yet - so he’s just done that immediately! In about 2 seconds.

he said he will have a look what else needs checking on my file and looks like OH is still outstanding (it’s with OH). So a slight positive and persistent contacting them seems to be the only way to get the job done!

fingers crossed for some progress soon 🤞🏻