Former colleague has asked me for a reference

[WetBandits]

As above, I’ve been asked by a former colleague to provide a reference (I left that ward 2 years ago and worked with her for 2 years before that), I was senior to her but not her manager. We worked closely and I have no issues providing a strong reference for her as she was reliable and trustworthy, and her standard of care was always excellent.

Can I provide a reference for her even though I wasn’t her manager? The current ward manager is quite a difficult person so I imagine that’s why she hasn’t approached her.

All references in my workplace must be passed to HR, rather than to managers in the first instance. I imagine you could be a personal referee but I'd check whether your workplace allows managers to complete their own professional references.

I don’t work there anymore, I’m at a different Trust now. She still works there.

It would be a personal reference rather than a professional one, I've just done this for a person who is a friend and former colleague.

I am a lecturer. My line manager changed so many times that I never met him. The head of the course that I taught on was incompetent and newish to the role. I provided the details of the next most senior member of staff in my department as my professional reference and it was never once called into question and I was successfully promoted at another university.

I doubt there is any issue at all.

Is the request for a personal or professional referee? Assuming you're still NHS I'd be checking with them regardless of being in a different trust.

You are only saying what you know, as long as you are truthful and say what your relative working positions were, I don't see anything wrong. How valuable/relevant they think your reference is, will be up to the people employing them. Keep a signed dated copy, just in case of any comeback.

Your not going to be doing it on headed paper so it should be obvious it's not an official reference.

You can do a personal reference but not a workbased one, as those have to go through HR.

Are you still with the NHS?

Just check if there’s a policy on who can and can’t provide references. I used to work for a large bank, and a team leader colleague wrote a reference for one of his team when he found a new role. Management were not permitted to provide references, they could only be produced by HR.

Probably would’ve gone unnoticed if the ex-employee hadn’t then saved the reference and produced it as a character reference at a court appearance a few months later. The employer found out, colleague nearly lost his job and was demoted.

I’ve done similar before when I’ve been asked by former colleague. I no longer worked at the school so explained I didn’t have access to personnel files but was happy to give a character reference.

In response to
“Beautiful3 · Today 14:51

You can do a personal reference but not a workbased one, as those have to go through HR.”

Not in my NHS board they don’t.

I would tell her that the opening line will be something like although I was never her line manager I was senior and worked with her for 2 years. That way if she is trying to pull the wool over someone's eyes it's right there. Most places want two referees, only one needs to be current/most recent employer.

It's over two months ago now since OP was asked for a reference @ACynicalDad

I'd imagine it's sorted.