Criminal Offences, Professionalism and Fitness to Practise
Criminal Offences, Professionalism, and Fitness to Practise
To become a registered health professional (nurse, midwife, physiotherapist, sport rehabilitator), we must ensure you are fit to practise. Our checks highlight unsuitable people from working with vulnerable adults and children, so we can be confident in your conduct and ability when participating in health professional student training.
All health professional students are required to have a criminal record check before they begin their course, and you must let us know of any criminal convictions you may have. As part of your application and the conditions of your offer to study with us, you’ll be required to complete an enhanced disclosure and barring service (DBS) check before you register to study. Failure to disclose this information may result in revoking an offer or the termination of your place studying your chosen course with us.
The university uses the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) to assess the suitability of applicants to work with a vulnerable population. This is common practice in healthcare professions, and we do not discriminate unfairly against any subject of disclosure based on information revealed.
Applicants should be aware that the disclosure will list all convictions and cautions received. Certain offences may lead to the applicant being refused entry onto the course, or subsequently being asked to withdraw.
If you are worried about your eligibility, please get in touch, and our team can advise.
Contact the team
Before you start your course, you will be contacted by the Placements Team regarding DBS clearance. However, if you've not received an email, please contact them.
On completion of the course, nursing and midwifery graduates are required to provide a further DBS check as part of the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
Employers will usually require a DBS check prior to employment.
Disclosure information will be handled and disposed of securely in compliance with the DBS Code of Practice, the Data Protection Act, and other relevant legislation.
Health professionals and health professional students are expected to behave in a way that ensures the public retain trust in all health professionals.
During your health professional training you will learn about, experience and develop professional behaviour. The School of Health Sciences also use training as an opportunity to identify types of behaviour that are not safe, and will take appropriate action to help students to improve their behaviour, or if this is not possible or is unsuccessful, to make sure they do not practice as health professionals.
We champion students who show excellent professional behaviour and celebrate their successes where appropriate.
Where issues are raised, we may need to take action. We have a committee which oversees the process of reporting and investigating professionalism concerns and ensuring the process is fair. The committee handles low-level professionalism issues to help resolve them before they develop into major issues.
Major issues which will likely lead to an investigation and may impact your place with us can include:
- drug or alcohol misuse
- aggressive, violent or threatening behaviour
- cheating or plagiarism
- dishonesty
- persistent inappropriate attitudes or behaviour
If we have any serious concerns about your fitness to practise either before or during your studies, you will be subject to a Fitness to Practise Investigation. Depending on the outcome of the investigation, we may not offer you a place. We also reserve the right to revoke offers should serious concerns arise before starting the course.
If you are already studying with us, a Fitness to Practise Investigation could result in conditions you must observe. In serious cases, a Fitness to Practise investigation could result in expulsion from the course, and you may be unable to study/practise as a health professional in the UK in the future.