Time from job offer to start date - NHS

[D-Angle]

I had an interview for an administration job with the NHS, and the following day I got a call to say I had been successful! Go me!

Anyway this was on March 31st, and I was told that they would now undertake pre-employment checks (references, ID check, basic CRB), after which I would get further contact in the post. As it's 13th April now and I still havn't heard anything, I'm getting a little twitchy. Anyone else have experience of this and know if this is a typical wait?

[Arese]

D-Angle said:

I had an interview for an administration job with the NHS, and the following day I got a call to say I had been successful! Go me!

Anyway this was on March 31st, and I was told that they would now undertake pre-employment checks (references, ID check, basic CRB), after which I would get further contact in the post. As it's 13th April now and I still havn't heard anything, I'm getting a little twitchy. Anyone else have experience of this and know if this is a typical wait?

Congratulations on the new job.

I have to go through checks like these for most contracts I work on, and they usually take 1-2 weeks. Give your agency or employer a call, it won't hurt. It might even show you're keen to start! I'm sure everything is fine.

[olliethehut]

For what its worth a basic CRB check can take upto 3 months to come through, you can check on the progress of an application by going to www.crb.gov.uk and ringing them with your details. The CRB checks are a royal pain, you cant allow someone to start until they have a completed check, and you cant start the check until they have accepted the position. It adds about 3 months onto our recruitment process. By the time the check has come through, half the applicants have found other work and no longer want the job...

[Mojooo]

A long wait for a CRB is not unusual. May go as long as 5-6 weeks.

[Tonberry]

Applied for a job October

Interview December (hadn't heard anything until a week before interview)

Job offer January

CRB check January

Eventually started....May

My CRB check came back after 2 weeks.

It turned out another person was due to start the same time as me. His CRB check took about 4 months.

Delayed me starting my job and nearly killed me with angst

[D-Angle]

Tonberry said:

Applied for a job October

Interview December (hadn't heard anything until a week before interview)

Job offer January

CRB check January

Eventually started....May

My CRB check came back after 2 weeks.

It turned out another person was due to start the same time as me. His CRB check took about 4 months.

Delayed me starting my job and nearly killed me with angst

Hmm, I am one of 3 people starting, that hadn't occurred to me. I think I'll give them a ring and maybe see about some temp work in the meantime.

[cazzer]

When I started my new job earlier this year they got pissed off with waiting for my CRB check to come back after 8 weeks and started me on a temporary contract.
Course the thing arrived 4 days later.

[Tonberry]

D-Angle said:

Tonberry said:

Applied for a job October

Interview December (hadn't heard anything until a week before interview)

Job offer January

CRB check January

Eventually started....May

My CRB check came back after 2 weeks.

It turned out another person was due to start the same time as me. His CRB check took about 4 months.

Delayed me starting my job and nearly killed me with angst

Hmm, I am one of 3 people starting, that hadn't occurred to me. I think I'll give them a ring and maybe see about some temp work in the meantime.

This was due to the fact that we were starting the exact same position and contract. They had no reason to want us to start together - I guess they just felt it would be easier.

[arguti]

D-Angle said:

I had an interview for an administration job with the NHS, and the following day I got a call to say I had been successful! Go me!

Anyway this was on March 31st, and I was told that they would now undertake pre-employment checks (references, ID check, basic CRB), after which I would get further contact in the post. As it's 13th April now and I still havn't heard anything, I'm getting a little twitchy. Anyone else have experience of this and know if this is a typical wait?

This is the NHS, did they not tell you that you are now on a waiting list?

Seriously, administration in the NHS is a bit slow to say the least, I would call them and arrange to go collect the CRB forms as it will take them 6 weeks to post them to you.

PS i work part-time in the nhs and my last round of correspondence with HR ,they took on average 5 months to reply to correspondence and patients have a maximum 4 hour wait in A&E, we live in different worlds.

[D-Angle]

Well just for future reference for anyone else, I got a call on wednesday and was offered a start date of June 14th. So that's 8 weeks from my offer to being given a date.

2 weeks from now I'll be one of those NHS pen-pushers that we love to complain about. Yay.

[Original Poster]

D-Angle said:

Well just for future reference for anyone else, I got a call on wednesday and was offered a start date of June 14th. So that's 8 weeks from my offer to being given a date.

2 weeks from now I'll be one of those NHS pen-pushers that we love to complain about. Yay.

To be fair I have heard of private sector clients taking longer then 8 weeks so it's not all bad!

Good luck!

[bitwrx]

I got a wait of 11 months with the... er another part of the public sector. Beat that bh.

And I was cancelled (along with the rest of the graduate intake) exactly four weeks to the day before my supposed start date. Then un-cancelled two days later. By phone. A message which my mum picked up. Because she happened to be home that day.

Useless fackers.

Anyway, back to you. Hasn't there been a public sector recruitment freeze implemented recently? Or is that only central gov. civil servants, not the whole public sector? And where does the NHS fit in all this anyway? Not being very helpful am I?