Your Southwark Onboarding Experience

Your Onboarding Journey with Southwark Council starts here
Congratulations on your new job offer with Southwark Council! We can't wait for you to join our #greatsouthwarkteams.

The next stage of your journey is to go through our onboarding process. As detailed in your offer letter, your appointment with Southwark is subject to successful completion of pre-employment checks. There are 4 standard parts to this process: References, Documents, Medical Questionnaire and ID Check.

There is a 5th part if your role requires a DBS check. 


Read through and complete the 4 or 5 steps below. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact your dedicated HR Assistant who is available to help you with any onboarding queries. You will find their contact details in your offer email.

Don't forget to read of our most frequently asked questions too - these can be found at the bottom of this page.                   

1. Complete your Referee Details
You will receive an email from your HR Assistant asking you to complete your referee details via an online form. Please complete this as soon as possible as references can take a while to be returned to us. We would also recommend contacting your referees to let them know you have named them as a referee for Southwark Council employment checks so that they are aware and can keep an eye out for the reference request.

Things to note:
- Please provide referee details to cover 2 years' worth of your employment history as standard.

- Please use employment references only - this might be your previous line manager or your employer's HR department.

- Your referee email details must be from a company email address - this means it cannot be a personal email e.g. yahoo, aol, hotmail etc.

- If you are in a safeguarding role, please provide referee details to cover 5 years' worth of your employment history.

2. Complete and Return your Documents
You will need to send in certain copies of requested documentation, as well as some Southwark forms. The full list is below and you will find all the forms attached to your offer email. If you need any help, please contact your HR Assistant.

Documents from You:

1. Passport (front page and full photo page)

2. Proof of Address (from within last 3 months)

3. Proof of your National Insurance Number (P45 or P60, National Insurance card or a letter from a government agency)

4. Relevant Qualifications for the role

Southwark Forms:

5. HMRC Form


6. Bank Details Form


7. Pensions Form

3. Medical Questionnaire
You will be emailed by our 3rd party health provider with a short online medical questionnaire to complete. The 3rd party will then notify us if they have flagged any actions that need to be taken for adjustment in the workplace.   This is so we can start putting reasonable adjustments in place to make your working environment as comfortable as possible. In some very rare cases, you may be invited for a medical check.
4. Book and Attend your ID Check
Please email your HR Assistant and let them know your availability for an ID check. Your HR Assistant's contact details can be found in your offer email. You should allow up to 30 minutes. This will either be done at our Head Offices at Tooley Street or via an online video call (e.g. during Covid).

You will need to have sent back all the documentation listed in step 2 above before attending for your ID check. 

You will also need to have the following documents ready to show at your ID check:

- Original Passport

- Original proof of National Insurance Number
- Original proof of address

- Original qualifications (if relevant to role)

4. Safeguarding Roles Only - DBS Check
If your role requires an enhanced DBS check, your HR Assistant will initiate this for you and will let you know which parts of the process your are required to do. 

If your role requires a basic DBS check, you are required to complete this yourself but guidance will be sent from our HR Team. Any cost involved is payable up front by yourself but you will be able to submit an expense for this once you start at Southwark to be reimbursed.
Keep in Touch!
  • icon box image

    Click to follow us on Linkedin for regular updates

  • icon box image

    Click to leave a review of your interview experience on Glassdoor

Learn more about Southwark 
  • The Council's Fairer Future Plan

    We value all our staff and your role is crucial in helping the Council achieve our outcomes as set out in our Council Plan. Click the icon to find out more about Southwark's Fairer Future plan.

  • Induction Plan and Meeting your Team

    Prior to your first day, we also recommend you read our info page about your first few weeks and months at Southwark Council, including your induction checklist. Click the icon to find out more.


Frequently Asked Questions

Below, you will find our most frequently asked questions during the onboarding process, check here and if you can't find the answer you are looking for, send an email to your HR Assistant who will be able to help.
  • Please email your HR Assistant and let them know your availability for an ID check. Your HR Assistant's contact details can be found in your offer email.
  • Please email your HR Assistant and let them know your availability for an ID check. Your HR Assistant's contact details can be found in your offer email.
  • You will receive an email from your HR Assistant called 'First Day of Service'. In this email it will detail if all your pre-employment checks have been successfully completed, as well as the final starting arrangements for your first day.
  • Your contract of employment is sent once your employment checks have been approved and your official start date has been arranged.
  • You can email our pensions team at: LBSPENSIONS.pensions@southwark.gov.uk 
  • Please let your HR Assistant know if you have Local Government Continuous service and provide a HR department contact for your employer. Your HR Assistant will then check with your employer for your continuous service dates and if your employer is eligible. Once they have been confirmed, you can transfer over certain rights under 'continuity of local authority service' which affects entitlement to Redundancy, Annual Leave; Occupational Sick Pay; and Occupational Maternity Leave and Pay. You can also transfer over your pension.
  • You need to return your documents and forms to your HR Assistant. You will find their details in your offer email under the ID section. Our HR Assistant Team consists of: Alia, Patricia, Sana, Lisa and Harriet. 
  • You can read more about our employee benefits at: 

    1. https://jobs.theguardian.com/minisites/southwark-council/life-at-southwark-benefits-and-more/
    2. https://jobs.southwark.gov.uk/why-us/ 

  • Southwark Council's probation period is 26 weeks. During this time, you should demonstrate your capacity to do the role in line with Southwark's probation policy including: conduct, performance and attendance. You will have regular meetings with your line manager to see how you are getting on - remember - probation period is important as it helps both employers and new starters to be sure they’ve made the right decision in joining and hiring.
  • If your role requires a Basic DBS check, you will pay upfront for this check. However, you will be able to claim back the cost via expenses, once you have started your job with us. 

    If you role requires an enhanced DBS check, we will cover this cost for you.