Getting ready for your compliance checks

The People Team will support you through your compliance checks and we’ve detailed some helpful tips and information; including what you can expect to receive when, and what documents to prepare.

What checks will you be doing?

As your new employer we need to undertake the following checks:

ID – essentially for us to be able to confirm your identity.
Right to Work – all employers in the UK have a legal responsibility to prevent illegal working. We do this by conducting simple right to work checks to make sure you are able to work in the UK.
BPSS – this stands for the Baseline Personnel Security Standard, and is a screening standard detailing the minimum level of clearance required for roles within government. This is a requirement for all DWP contracts.

Do I need to do anything before I transfer?

Yes – please identify the documents you will use for your compliance checks (see below section on which documents you can use for each check) and have them ready for day one. Once you have joined us, we will send you details of how to load those documents onto our system, which will start the check process.

What documents will I need to prepare?

The following documents will be required to meet the compliance requirements for your checks.

Right to Work Check

We will need either:

A signed British/Irish passport, OR
A full UK birth certificate and proof of National Insurance number, OR
A share code so that we can carry out a Home Office online right to work check and any visa documents or BRP

ID checks

2 x photo ID documents and 1 x document showing your current address, OR
1 x photo ID document and 2 x documents showing your current address

Examples of photo ID documents include a passport and photocard driving licence

Examples of current address documents include a bank statement or utility bill (dated within the last three months) or council tax bill (dated within the last 12 months).

We do require three separate documents for this check, meaning that a driving license could not count as both a photo ID document and proof of address.

Please note that all your documents for both the Right to Work and ID checks must meet the below criteria:

Your name and address match on all documents provided.
All document copies are in colour, legible and show the full document.
Please note that we can’t accept online documents.

Time saving tip

If you have an in-date UK Passport, in-date Photocard Driving License and copy of your bank statement or utility bill dated in the last three months (paper not online), these three documents will satisfy everything required for all the checks.

What happens once I join Advo?

Within your first few days with Advo you will receive two emails explaining what to do.

One from our screening partner, PayStream, asking you to access their online platform and work through the stages of your Right to Work, ID and BPSS checks (which will include DBS and references). This email can go to your junk folder, so we encourage you to check this as well.

Secondly, you will also receive an email from a member of our People Team, who will be your point of contact during your compliance checks with us. This will include a helpful guide with step-by-step instructions on how to access the system.

What will I need to do?

Once you receive the emails from PayStream and People Team, we ask that you commence your screening as swiftly as possible. Please do not hesitate to contact the People Team should you have any questions or issues surrounding the process.

When it comes to the DBS aspect of the check, please ensure that you disclose any previous names/surnames on your application by answering “Yes” to the question “Have you been known by any other names?”.

If you have a DBS certificate on the DBS update service dated within the last six months, then please send us a copy of this.

When it comes to references, if your current employment (i.e. prior to 7 September) covers the previous three years, you will not need to add any further details. If it covers less than three years then we will need you to include details of referees to cover this.

What else do I need to know?

There are occasions when we are unable to complete ID checks online due to the types of documents held, for example, where a birth certificate is provided.

In these situations, we will need to complete an in-person check with you. Once you have submitted your information on PayStream, we will identify if an in-person check is required and contact you straight away to organise this.