FOI 25-292 NQP Recruitment 2025
Freedom of Information Request
- Reference
- FOI 25-292 NQP Recruitment 2025
- Request Date
- 08 Jul 2025
- Response Date
- 11 Jul 2025
- Information Requested
Have been advised by a SAS team leader that one of your NQP interviewers only passed 20 people he interviewed - significantly less than other interviewers. Were these people treated and interviewed fairly? What was the benchmark for interviews? How will you be ensuring fairness if people are being interviewed by a variety of people? Will this affect NQP outcomes?
- Response
The Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) utilises the same interview process to fill any vacancy. The recruitment process comprises of a full panel of interviewers, including Human Recourses (HR) personnel. Every member of the panel has completed training in utilising the scoring matrix set out by SAS. Each member of the interview panel completes the scoring matrix independently of each other during the course of the interview. These are gathered per candidate and submitted to the recruitment department to compile scores for each candidate and take appropriate action – either accept the candidate or mark them as unsuccessful.
In relation to the current NQP recruitment drive, there has not been a situation where one person has conducted interviews on their own; SAS have had a member of the Education and Personal Development Department (EPDD) and a member of HR on each panel.
The scoring matrix is used during the NQP interviews is the same one that is used throughout SAS recruitment (scoring from 0-5 for each section).
Due to the volume of NQP applications, it would have been impossible for one panel to interview each candidate; it was for this reason the Scottish Ambulance Service put in place the following mitigating factors to aid consistency:
- HR were present on every interview panel which is not standard practice, this helped bring consistency to the process and ensure all candidates were treated fairly following due process.
- 52 different panel compositions to help 'even out' any scoring
- Positive and negative indicators were provided for each question which essentially detailed a 'good' and 'bad' answer
- There were 5 different question sets used.
Important Information to Consider
There have been 325 interviews conducted by the 52 different compositions of interviews panels. This was purposely designed to try and ensure fairness across the board.
Interviewers did not have the information required to "pass" anyone - the final appointable score was only known once all candidates had been interviewed. The interview cut off score was set centrally and not provided to interviewers. Therefore, no individual interviewer would be responsible for ‘passing’ or ‘failing’ candidates.
