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London Calling But Not Doing Background Checks On Its Foreign Workers

Foreign care workers escape background check

By Laura Clout

Tens of thousands of immigrants are working with vulnerable elderly people and children without undergoing full criminal record checks, it has emerged.

Senior police officers have warned the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith of the scale of the problem in a report examining the affect on the UK of immigration from Eastern Europe.

For the entire article go to the telegraph.com

Here is yet one more nutty lapse in a world of nutty lapses.   The western world makes so much of terror threats and then in places like the UK they do little to run background checks on its foreign workers.   Clearly, most British natives avoid any work dealing with the elderly, infirmed or in the different service industries.  It’s tough work and often thankless.  But someone has to do it.  Enter the foreign workers.

So, alright, maybe that new foreign worker helping Mom or Dad or whomever is not really a terrorist.  Instead maybe they are a thief or have a record of being physically abusive.  It would make sense to run a background check to find out, before they go pilfering your loved one’s money, jewelry or valuable possessions.

Since with the UK part of the hiring is through government service, it would stand to reason that they would be sure to run preemployment background checks.   I suppose that would be too thorough.

As for here, across the pond, in the United States, if you are a health care service facility of any sort, or if you are the children of someone who needs an attendant, it would be wise to order criminal background searches.  Corra has one client who insists all assisted living employees are vetted before…well…assisting their residents.   Makes sense.  Smart idea.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.