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HSC Criminal Convictions Declaration

Health and Social Care Criminal Convictions Declaration

Before an offer can be made, you’ll need to complete a criminal conviction declaration questionnaire.

Why do we ask for this information?

  • To ensure that the admissions process is fair, inclusive and transparent;
  • To help to identify and minimise any risk to the safety of staff, students and visitors;
  • To protect the University’s property;
  • To enable the University to assess eligibility for admission to, and ability to complete, courses.

Before completing the questionnaire, please read through the information below. Please complete your questionnaire as soon as possible to avoid delays in processing your application.

This info is only for Health And Social Care Applicants

Applicants for all courses within the Institute of Health & Social Care are not entitled to withhold information about any convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings - including those relating to juvenile offences - or past or present child or adult safeguarding investigations. Posts entailing contact with patients are exempt from the provisions of Section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.

Students with cautions or criminal convictions may not be able to undertake work or placements, depending on the convictions or cautions in question and as a result may not be able to complete the course, register or practise. It is for this reason that criminal convictions information is requested from applicants at this stage.  The School of Health and Social Care may decline an application where an applicant’s record is deemed unsuitable for admission to pre-registration programmes.

Please note that the School of Health and Social Care is unlikely to be able to accept your application where your conviction(s) relate to:

-         sexual, violent and serious drug or drink offences;

-         a series of offences over a period of time;

-         a custodial sentence of more than 12 months; or

-         any other offence that might pose a threat to staff, students or others;

Where this is the case, you may choose not to provide further details other than nature of the offence(s) and the date on which the offence(s) took place.

Successful applicants will be required to undergo a DBS check upon enrolment to their chosen pre-registration course to ensure that they are not barred from working within allied health.

Before enrolling onto your course you will be asked to provide information relating to fitness to practise requirements, within the allied health professions and suitability for social work, on the basis that LSBU will not accept students on to courses which they will be unable to complete due to the fitness to practise or good character requirements of their chosen regulated profession.

What if I don’t have a criminal conviction?

You should still log into the questionnaire and let us know. You simply need to fill in your name, date of birth and student ID (which can be found on your offer email). The first question asks whether you have any criminal convictions. If you don’t, you only need to tick ‘no’ and submit.

Will a conviction affect my employability after graduating?

There are certain professions which may have rules surrounding criminal convictions. It is worth taking a look at Unlock’s Guidance on occupations to make yourself aware of any challenges you may face in the future.

How we store your data

Information relating to criminal convictions will be stored separately from your other application-related information and will only be made available to those who need to consider it as part of our risk assessment and admissions process.  The information will be anonymised where reasonably possible and appropriate. Information will usually be retained in a form (PDF File 860 KB) that identifies the applicant for no longer than is necessary.

Full details on our Criminal Convictions process can be found in section 2.40 of our Admissions and Enrolment Procedure (PDF File 1,043 KB).