When a vacancy is reviewed

A council can publish strong equality objectives and still fail a simple recruitment review. If a vacancy is sampled, many recruitment teams cannot show who saw the role before shortlisting began. That is a PSED risk because the evidence gap sits before the application data even starts.

The problem for recruiters is simple. They are asked to prove fair reach, but most systems only report once someone applies. That means the advert stage remains weak. A council may know application volumes, but not whether the channel mix gave underrepresented groups a credible chance to engage.

Current approaches fail because broad posting is treated as proof. It is not. Reach is not the same as evidence. A general job board may generate traffic, but it rarely gives an exportable record that supports governance review on a sampled role.

What works better is attraction stage evidence. Diversity Jobsite provides date-stamped reporting on advert engagement before shortlist decisions are made. That gives councils a clearer line between public equality commitments and the channels used to support them.

Next step. Pick one live vacancy and ask whether you could evidence advert stage reach tomorrow if governance requested it.