Social care policy-making seeks to address longstanding staff recruitment and retention problems but also to protect vulnerable clients from harm. Internationally many states have policies requiring disclosure of conviction histories by applicants seeking work with vulnerable populations. Policies also seek to encourage rehabilitation of people with offending histories, particularly in countries with high employment. This article presents and discusses the policy implications of a scoping review conducted in 2019 to explore evidence of current practice in employing people with criminal records as care workers in social care and the potential to recruit new staff from this group. The literature contains limited evidence about the effectiveness of policies inhibiting or facilitating social care work by people with criminal records. Further research should clarify policy contradictions, identify barriers and facilitators in different parts of the care sector to employment and protection, while holistic evaluation of initiatives in this area is needed.
