References

When should references be sought?

Written references must be obtained before any decision to appoint is acted upon. Offers of employment should not be made subject to satisfactory references but in certain circumstances an appointment might be made on the basis of detailed verbal references in advance of a written reference. In the event of any query about information supplied in a reference seek advice from Personnel Services before offering the appointment.

Who can provide a reference?

The Core e-recruitment system requires candidates to provide details of at least two people who have agreed to provide a reference for them.

If the candidate has previously been employed, the referees should be people who have direct experience of the candidate's work, and at least one of them should be the current/immediately previous formal line manager. It is not recommended that a reference from a personal friend is used.

If an applicant does not have previous work experience, references should normally be sought from individuals who have had professional interaction with the applicant - e.g. from school, or voluntary experience.

Candidates will need to explain how each referee knows them (e.g. 'line manager', 'work colleague', 'college tutor'). References supplied by a relation should not be accepted.

References for internal candidates

Where a candidate currently works, or has previously worked, for the University it is important that the department offering employment is fully aware of all the circumstances in which a person has previously left another department.

Before making an offer of employment in these circumstances, heads of department or departmental administrators must take up a reference from the head or administrator of the previous employing department. This must be done in addition to taking references from the individuals cited as referees by the job applicant. (Past difficult cases have often featured references being given by colleagues rather than the head or administrator.)

Heads and administrators responding to such requests for references must disclose all the relevant and material facts and information, especially where problems or difficulties have been experienced with the person's conduct or capability. Where a department employs a person whose departure from a previous department has been problematic and has involved considerable management and personnel resources, the employing department will be directly responsible for the costs associated with addressing any similar employment difficulties should they recur.

What information should be requested from the referee?

Referees should be supplied with details of the post and asked to comment on the candidate's suitability for it. They should also be asked to provide details of the dates of the candidate's employment and of any disciplinary processes which are still considered 'live'. The Core e-recruitment system gives candidates the option to indicate whether they consent to their referees being contacted at any time and care should be taken to respect candidate's wishes in this regard. Pro-forma letters are available to download from Documents (see right).

Can referees be asked about sickness absence record?

Under the terms of the Equality Act 2010, employers may no longer ask questions about a candidate's health until a conditional job offer has been made. Referees should therefore not be asked to comment on a candidate's health or their sickness absence record.

Confidentiality of references under the 1998 Data Protection Act

Those seeking references should ensure that referees are informed that references will be regarded as potentially disclosable to the subject on request unless they are marked "strictly confidential", but, however, that marking references "strictly confidential" does not necessarily eliminate the possibility that they may be disclosed.

If a candidate made a subject access request under the Data Protection Act the University's Data Protection Officer would seek the consent of the writer of the reference to disclose it to the applicant. If the writer did not wish the reference to be disclosed it would be for the University's Data Protection Officer to decide whether a duty of confidence existed, and if it did, the reference would be withheld. However it would still be open to the candidate to seek disclosure from the Information Commissioner, whose response to such requests could not be predicted.

Further guidance on the legal position may be obtained from the University's data protection web pages.

Job details

A statement should be included in the job details for a post advising candidates that the applicant's line manager will be asked to provide a reference (in the case of internal candidates this will be the Head of Department or the departmental administrator).

Giving references

Please follow the link for guidance on giving references.