Police Caution

[korkio]

A colleague of mine who works in a Care Home for the elderly recently received an official Police Caution for assaulting a fellow care worker. Does he have to declare this matter to his employers, as the incident occurred on a night out, and not during work hours? Thanks.

[fairkatrina]

It's a hazy area, technically a caution is not a conviction, and that is what most employers are concerned about (and ask about) but it still goes on his criminal record and may show up if they do a police check on him. And the fact that it took place outside of the workplace is irrelevant. I wouldn't bother reporting it to his present employers, as he already has a job with them and they know him, they would probably consider it a personal matter, but he'll probably have to declare it to future employers.

[korkio]

The other guys willing to forgive and forget, so thanks Fairkatrina.

[Yorkie580]

The only thing to be careful of is whether he has police checks done by hs employer yearly. If so he may have to declare a caution becasue of the nature of the work.

It would be worth checking the terms of employment - if he had to declare cautions when applying for the job then he would probably have to declare the new one.

Get him to check his terms of employment carefully becasue he could end up losing his job and hence find it hard to get re-employed, if he doesn't declare it. He is also POSSIBLY opening himself up to criminal offences if he is working and recieving payment by falsly representing his offending history.

[korkio]

Cheers Yorkie, someone mentioned a pova list, but i'm not sure what this is.

[Yorkie580]

I googled POVA:

http://www.criminalrecordchecks.co.uk/pova-lis t.htm

[weas]

Yes ,you must report this !
the elderly have a right to be protected , it could be your grannie in the care of someone not so nice ,and believe me it happens all the time, your honest approach will put you in good stead, but getting found out won't.

[korkio]

Thanks for all your replies.

[oldfahrt]

I think it will show up on a CRB check. I think your colleague may have damned him/herself because irrespective of the fact that the assault took place outside of working hours it shows the character and personality and if someone can assault a colleague then they could assault someone who they are nursing in the eyes of an employer. But I am sure it will show on a CRB check so it has to be mentioned ideally at an interview stage, but assaulting someone and having a record for doing so has probably damned your colleague for life in the carer career.

[korkio]

Thanks oldfahrt. Your probably right, but he is currently working in the Care Home and no-one there is yet aware of the incident, and may well never be. There's no doubt that ethically he should mention the matter, but on a practical point, if he does report the incident he may well, in effect , be making himself jobless.

[korkio]

My point being that he has already passed his CRB check.

[samuel23]

Here we all are giving advice on a matter that we know scant few details about. He may well have recieved a caution, but was he provoked, protecting someone or was it self defence? How long has he worked for his employers? Do they know him well enough to be able to recognise it was a heated one off reaction?
The salient points are
Does he have a history of this? Not by the sounds of it or he wouldn't have been employed in the first place.
Was the assault bad? Not by the sounds of it or the police would have prosecuted.
Could he ask the person he assaulted to speak on his behalf? Maybe ~ korkio has said the other person is willing to forgive and forget.
Honesty would be the best policy. If he was found out through a new CRB check (and these are supposed to be done every two years) he would have more explaining to do than if he came clean and admitted it up front. Put yourself in the employers shoes ~ would you be likely to view the incident more favourably if you were told about it in advance? Tricky one this.