Working as a temp

Temp dental nurses and hygienists who take shifts through Smileline are employed by Smileline Staffing Ltd, an employment business, and paid through PAYE. Your temp area is at /pro. You sign in with your own Smileline account; you don't need to belong to a practice.

Join

Bank invitations

A practice can invite you to its bank by email: its bank is offered its shifts before other temps nearby. Invitations to your verified email address show at the top of your temp area under Practices inviting you to their bank.

• Click Accept to join that practice's bank. It then sees your name, your record and where your checks stand.
• Click Decline, then click again to confirm, to turn it down.

A practice sees nothing about you, not even whether you use Smileline, unless you accept. You can decline an invitation before you join; to accept one, join first.

Send your checks

Profile & checks → Your checks lists every check Smileline makes before you can take shifts. Each shows Not sent, Being checked, Verified, Not accepted (with the reason), Revoked (with the reason) or Run out.

• Right to work: enter your Home Office share code, or tick I have a British or Irish passport to be checked through an identity service.

• Background check: the check for the nations you want to work in. Click Add a background check and choose:

  • DBS check (England and Wales)
  • PVG scheme (Scotland)
  • AccessNI check (Northern Ireland)

  Enter your certificate or scheme membership number and when it was issued, or untick I already have a certificate for Smileline to apply for one through its registered body.

  If you no longer want to work in a nation, click Withdraw next to its check, then click again to confirm. Its details and its documents leave your temp area, and you can add it again later. A verified check that hasn't run out can't be withdrawn.

• GDC registration: your GDC number is sent for checking when you join. Smileline records the titles you hold on the register.

• References: the details of two referees.

• Hepatitis B immunity: upload a PDF or a photo of your evidence, up to 10 MB.

• Your photo: upload a clear photo of your face (JPEG, PNG or WebP), up to 10 MB. Once it is verified, it is the photo practices see when you are booked.

Click Send again to send a newer version, for example a renewal before a check runs out. Your verified check stays valid while the new one is checked, and stays valid until it runs out if the new one isn't accepted. Smileline can also revoke a verified check, which ends it straight away; you see the reason.

Smileline reminds you 30 days, and again 7 days, before a verified check runs out. You are only offered shifts on dates your checks cover.

Read and accept your documents

Your documents lists the key information document for each role you work as, and your worker terms, for Great Britain and, if you asked for an AccessNI check, Northern Ireland. Read each key information document with Read it, then Accept the terms. You need both before your first shift, and each copy is emailed to you.

When a new version is published, read and accept it again before your next shift.

Working time

The law caps your working week at 48 hours on average unless you choose to opt out. Under Working time, click Opt out of the 48-hour limit (and click again to confirm). The date is recorded. To change your mind, click Withdraw my opt-out.

Enter Hours a week you work elsewhere so the average counts your other work too.

How offers reach you

Under How offers reach you you can:

• Turn on WhatsApp offers for a number you confirm uses WhatsApp, or Stop WhatsApp offers. Replying STOP to a WhatsApp message stops them too. Other replies on WhatsApp are read by the Smileline Staffing team; everything about a shift is in your temp area.
• Tick or untick Send me offers by text message.
• Change your Mobile number.

If a WhatsApp message can't be delivered, the offer is sent once by text instead, but only if you chose text messages.

Under What and where you work you can change the roles you work as, your home address and how far you'll travel.

Activation

Smileline activates you once your right to work, GDC registration, references, Hepatitis B evidence and photo are verified, the background check for at least one nation is verified, the documents for the nations you can work in are accepted and your payroll record is set up. Shift offers then appear under Shifts.

A check for another nation that is still being checked, or wasn't accepted, doesn't hold you back. You are offered shifts in a nation only once its background check is verified; read and accept that nation's documents before your first shift there.

Shifts

Shifts → Offers lists the shifts offered to you that haven't started. Each shows when and where it is, its pay with the holiday pay on top, its unpaid break, the work, its risks and the practice's own notes (which Smileline doesn't check). Offers also reach you by WhatsApp or text and by email; the link opens the shift here.

The first temp to accept a shift gets it, and you are sent the booking. A shift can't be accepted:

• when it starts less than 11 hours after the end of another of your shifts, or ends less than 11 hours before one starts;
• when it would leave you without an unbroken 24 hours' rest in its week (Monday to Sunday);
• when it would take you over 48 hours a week on average over 17 weeks, counting the hours you work elsewhere, unless you opted out;
• when your checks don't cover its date, or there are new documents to read and accept;
• while the practice's account is paused or closing, or once its site can no longer book temps;
• at a practice where you manage temp cover or billing.

Shifts → Booked lists your bookings, with the practice's phone number. Click Add to calendar to save one to your calendar.

To cancel a booking before it starts, click Cancel, choose I'm ill (with the days you're off sick) or Something else, then click Cancel the booking. The practice is told and the shift is offered to other temps; your record shows the cancellation. Once a shift has started, tell the practice instead.

If a practice cancels your booking, you are told by WhatsApp or text and by email. You are paid half your pay for the shift when it cancels between 24 and 72 hours before the start, all of it with less than 24 hours' notice or when you are turned away on arrival, and nothing with 72 hours' notice or more.

Your hours

Shifts → Past lists the shifts you've worked, latest first, with your hours and what you earn before tax, holiday pay included. Until your pay is recorded it shows what you can expect; then the exact amount.

Your times must overlap the shift you were booked for and come to 13 hours at most. You can correct them until the deadline: 24 hours after the shift ends. If a shift ends without your times, you're reminded by WhatsApp or text, and by email.

The practice confirms your times or disputes them. If it doesn't answer by the deadline, your times are confirmed, or the booked times if you sent none.

If the practice disputes your hours, or says you didn't come, before you've sent your times, you're told by WhatsApp or text, and by email. Send your own times before the deadline to contest it; otherwise the practice's answer stands. When the practice disputes less than 12 hours before the deadline, you have 12 hours from its dispute instead, and the shift shows the new time. When you contest it, the lower of the two is paid and Smileline decides the rest. If you were turned away when you arrived, send the times you were booked for: a temp turned away is paid for the whole shift.

After your hours are confirmed, click Report a problem if something is wrong: enter the times you worked and what went wrong, then click Report a problem. Smileline decides, and the hours already confirmed stay paid meanwhile. You can report one problem per shift.

From your 13th week working for the same practice in the same role, you're paid at least what the practice pays its own employees doing the same job, with at least their holiday. In Great Britain your holiday pay is paid with each week's pay; in Northern Ireland it builds up and is paid when you take leave.

Getting paid

Smileline Staffing pays you every week through PAYE: tax and National Insurance are taken before you're paid. Your bank details, National Insurance number and starter checklist go to Smileline's payroll provider through its own portal, which also has your payslips.

Each week runs from Tuesday to Monday. Everything recorded for you by the end of the Monday goes into that week's pay, sent to payroll on the Wednesday and paid on the Friday:

• the hours of each shift, once they are confirmed;
• your share of a booking the practice cancelled late;
• corrections Smileline made after a dispute. A correction made later is paid the following week.

If you cancel a booking because you're ill, the days you were off sick go to payroll too, for statutory sick pay.

Deleting your account

You can't delete your Smileline account while you still have a booked shift to work. Once your booked shifts are worked or cancelled, you can. When you delete your account, you stop being a Smileline Staffing temp, and Smileline keeps your employment records for as long as the law requires.

Two years after you leave, Smileline removes your date of birth, share code, background-check numbers, referees, contact details and uploaded files. Your name, GDC number, shift record and the dates and outcomes of your checks stay as the record of your employment.