Fitness to train requirements

Alongside your offer letter, all applicants will be emailed a link to a form where they must make a self-declaration regarding their suitability to work with children and/or vulnerable adults.  For any applicants who were made an offer prior to March, the link to the form will be sent out in March, this is to ensure that all conditions are met within 6 months of the start of the programme. Applicants will be required to include all countries lived in since birth. This declaration will also be an opportunity to declare any convictions, cautions or other relevant information which may be relevant. Where a conviction or caution is declared, the Goldsmiths Criminal Declaration by Applicant Policy will become applicable.

Any applicant (except a PGCE applicant) who has lived outside of the UK for more than six months in the last 5 years will need to provide a police check from the country/countries previously resided in. See the 'Overseas Disclosure (Certificate of Good Conduct)' section below for further guidance.

Please note that PGCE programmes require a police check from all the countries you have lived in for six months or more, within the last 7 years.

PGCE applicants

If you have previously lived outside the UK for more than six months in the last 7 years (after the age of 18), you will be required to provide a police check (also known as a ‘certificate of good conduct’) from the country or countries that you have lived in outside the United Kingdom. 

All other Fitness to Train applicants

If you have previously lived outside the UK for more than six months in the last 5 years (after the age of 18), you will be required to provide a police check (also known as a ‘certificate of good conduct’) from the country or countries that you have lived in outside the United Kingdom during that period.

For further guidance for your country please refer to the government page on the subject.

To be accepted, the Overseas Disclosure/Police check must be written in English, and issued within the last 12 months. Please bear in mind that you may be charged for the Overseas Police Check, and this will be at your own expense.

You will need to complete a health check to ensure that:

• Your health will not be compromised by your profession (e.g. any existing health problems will not become worse)
• The health and safety of other staff will not be adversely affected by your being unfit to work

Everyone – including people with disabilities – who wants to work in one of the careers that require these checks can achieve their potential through reasonable adjustments, if necessary. The College will make adjustments, including making sure that placements are accessible wherever possible.

Once you have filled out the questionnaire, you will need to take or email it to your doctor. On the basis of your questionnaire, the doctor will classify you in one of three categories:

a) Those who are in good health or have conditions that are not likely to interfere with efficiency in teaching / social work / etc.

b) Those who are in good health but who suffer from conditions that are likely to interfere to some extent with their efficiency on their placement, though these conditions are not serious enough to make the candidate unfit for the placement.

c) Those whose condition would make them unfit for their placement 

Once the doctor has indicated a category, signed, and stamped the form, you will then need to email a copy to the admissions team at admissionsconfidential(@gold.ac.uk).

Please complete the Health Check form (PDF) before sending it to admissions.

As part of the fitness to train process, you will need to apply for an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate from the Government's Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS). This certificate provides details of any criminal offences, cautions, warnings or other issues that might be on your record.

You will receive an email explaining how to apply for an Enhanced DBS Check with our partner First Advantage once you have completed the Suitability Declaration form. Applicants who have not yet begun the DBS check process by the 31 August conditions deadline will need to email admissionsconfidential@gold.ac.uk to request alternative arrangements are made as the process will change from this date.

As part of the application you will need to verify your identity by showing original ID documents at a Post Office with ID check facilities. You will be able to choose a Post Office local to you as part of the DBS application process. The DBS check costs approximately £52 which includes the ID verification fee.

The cost of the DBS and associated costs will be borne by the applicant.

If you are currently living outside of the UK you will not be able to start your DBS application until you have moved to the UK. You will need some ID (such as a bank letter) with your UK address, you should obtain this and start your check as soon as possible after you arrive in the UK.

If you are an international or EU student and are living in the UK under a visa or permission that does not include a physical visa document (ie. you have a Share Code rather than a BRP or visa vignette) you will need to visit one of the Admissions campus drop-in sessions to complete your DBS application. Please start the application process as normal, but select ‘Organisation’ as the verifier rather than Post Office, then book a session to visit the team or email us at admissionsconfidential@gold.ac.uk so that we can verify your documents.

The process of disclosure and fitness to train is exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, and Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. As such, no convictions, cautions or other relevant information is ever considered spent.

Some old or minor convictions and cautions may be exempt from disclosure under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended). This means that under the filtering rules, applicants don’t need to declare certain old and minor convictions or cautions when completing a DBS application form, as they will not appear on the DBS disclosure certificate, and the college cannot take these into account in their decisions. This process is referred to as the "filtering" of convictions and more information can be found via DBS filtering guidance.

The College has a responsibility not to admit students who would be debarred from undertaking work-based placements. Please note that fulfilling your fitness to train will not in itself guarantee that a potential employer will take the same view of a conviction.

If you require a DBS check, then you have the option of using the Sensitive Applications Process.

The law does require that you disclose all of your previous names and addresses to the DBS so that they can correctly process your application. However, the Sensitive Applications Process means you can disclose your previous gender/name to the DBS only and not reveal this on the application form (or to Goldsmiths or your placement provider).

If you wish to apply via this process, you should contact the DBS’s Sensitive Application’s Team before submitting your application to First Advantage. They can be contacted at:

• 0151 676 1452
• sensitive@dbs.gsi.gov.uk
• Sensitive applications team
  Customer services
  PO Box 165
  Liverpool L69 3JD

Contacting the DBS’s Sensitive Application’s Team will ensure that your previous gender/name is not released on your certificate without your permission. A member of the team will be able to answer all of your questions about completing the application form and will record your details so that they can track your application when it arrives. Once it arrives at the DBS, the team will monitor your application and check the content of your certificate before it is issued.

As an organisation using the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to access applicants' suitability for positions of trust, Goldsmiths complies fully with the DBS Code of Practice and undertakes to treat all applicants for positions fairly. Goldsmiths is committed to the fair treatment of its students, potential students or users of its services, regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, responsibilities for defendants, age, physical/mental disability or offending background. It undertakes not to discriminate unfairly against any subject of a Disclosure on the basis of conviction or other information revealed.

Where a disclosure is to form part of the recruitment process, we encourage all applicants to declare their criminal offence(s) early in the application process. Once declared we will ask that applicants complete a Criminal Declaration by Applicants form and return either a character reference and/or a probation report. To declare a criminal record please email admissionsconfidential@gold.ac.uk - enclosing your full name, student reference number, date of birth and programme(s) applied for.

If we determine that you do not fulfil the fitness to train conditions, then any offer of a place or provisional enrolment will be withdrawn by the College. If you wish to appeal a withdrawal, please contact the Admissions office at admissionsconfidential@gold.ac.uk

All information provided will be treated confidentially. For more information please visit our Declaration of Criminal Convictions page and see our written Criminal Declaration by Applicants (CDAP) Policy (PDF).

If you hold an offer for a programme with Fitness to Train requirements and you currently reside outside the UK you can fully complete the Suitability declaration, Health, and Overseas background checks before you arrive in the UK.

However, you can only register with First Advantage for the UK Enhanced DBS and you cannot complete the verification stage until you have a UK address.

Once you have completed the Suitability declaration, Health and Overseas background checks, please contact the Admissions team. We can then update your offer to unconditional to assist with your CAS and visa application, you will then need to apply for your DBS as soon as you arrive in the UK.