Aged Care Police Checks in Australia

As members of our community get older, it becomes difficult for them to do the things they could once do themselves. They need assistance with domestic and non-domestic activities.

Aged care is an occupation that has the responsibility of caring for and supporting the health and wellbeing of the elderly, disabled, or the infirmed. Caring for such people is a full-time and sensitive job. People employed in such positions of caring for the elderly should be thoroughly scrutinised.

Police Check requirements were implemented by the Australian Government in 2007 and reviewed in 2009. The Australian Government by enabling the Police Check requirements ensures that the health, safety, and rights of the vulnerable persons in the community are not infringed upon.

Police Checks aim to strengthen the meticulous employment process for the vulnerable in Australia. It ensures all applicants and volunteers are screened and approved for the care of the aged.

The Aged Care Act 1997 (the Act) provides the legal framework and backing for all aged care services under the Commonwealth legislation. This legislation falls with but is superior to laws guiding aged care in any Australian state or territory.

The Aged Care Quality standards cover all aged care services including; residential care, home care, other similar care and services which appears under the Commonwealth Home Support Programme. Standard 8 (3) (c) v) provides the requirements for approved providers to espouse systems that will help identify and ensure compliance with pertinent legislation.

An approved aged care provider should document any decision it makes on a police certificate. They must ensure that an issued certificate is satisfactory to the requirements. Every police clearance certificate must include;

• The full name and date of birth of the applicants;
• The date of issuing the certificate
• The reference number or a substitute

Police Checks for the care of the aged in any Australian state or territory must be held by;

• All staff members who have duties that give them access to the supervised/unsupervised care of the aged; Staff members should be at least 16 years of age.
• All volunteers who have unsupervised access to the care of the aged. Volunteers should be at least 16 years of age. Where the person is a full-time student, they should be at least 18 years old.

There are only two instances where presenting a statutory declaration can be eligible;

• For new staff and volunteer applicants who are waiting to be issued with a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check after application;
• For any staff or volunteer who has been a citizen, or permanent resident of a country other than Australia after 16 years of age.

Police Checks for this purpose are a record of all the releasable criminal and convictions history of an individual who seeks employment in the care of the aged. The records of a Police Check are accessed from the Australian jurisdictions and subjected to relevant state and territory spent conviction schemes.

Spent Convictions may not appear on a police check certificate unless the purpose for the police check application (for example, working with the elderly) is exempt from the relevant spent conviction scheme.

Exclusions are applied to the spent convictions scheme for checks for relevant offences.

Spent conviction legislation varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In some circumstances or jurisdictions certain offences cannot be spent.

Some convictions prevent a person from being hired, contracted, retained or accepted in an unsupervised role in the care of the aged. Such offences are;

• Convictions for murder or sexual assault
• Convictions leading to sentences/imprisonment for any other form of assaults

Where an individual’s conviction(s) does not fall under precluding convictions, approved providers are enjoined to assess such cases pertinently. An approved provider’s decision regarding employment on such convictions must be meticulous, defensible and transparent. Guides have been provided in helping approved providers to assess an individual’s suitability for a role in aged care services;

• Considerations should be made about the degree of the individual’s access to care recipient
• The pertinence of the convictions to the role of the individual
• The proportion of the preclusion to the convictions
• The time that has elapsed since convictions
• Employment history since convictions (with guarantors)
• Findings of therapies/programs that followed their conviction and individual’s attitude to convictions
• If there are patterns or links in the individual’s convictions
• The likelihood of a recurring incident if the individual is employed

Accredited aged care providers must ensure that their records prove that;

• Every staff or volunteer of their organisation has a police clearance certificate which is not older than three (3) years.
• An application for the police clearance certificate has been requested for every new staff/member or volunteer who doesn't have a police check certificate.
• A statutory declaration should be made by any staff member or volunteer who is yet to obtain a police clearance certificate. Or Staff/volunteer who is a citizen or permanent resident of a country other than Australia.

Approved providers must take possible measures to require any of their staff/volunteer members to notify them if they are found guilty of a precluding offence within the three years of obtaining an updated Police certificate. A staff/volunteer member convicted of a precluding offence must not be allowed to continue with the organisation.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission is empowered to monitor the compliance of approved providers to police certificate requirements by the Quality Standards; Standard 8 (3) (c) v). The Department also monitors approved providers under the Act to ensure they meet up to their obligations.

Aged care services whose staff/volunteers do not have Police Check requirements can obtain them through either of the two ways;

Obtain them via a national police check provider like Australian National Character Check.

Or

Obtain them through the Australian Federal Police authorities;

Full aged care police certificate guidelines and policy information (including templates for record keeping and statutory declarations) provided by the Department of Health and Ageing can be downloaded by clicking on the following link: Download PDF.

Australian National Character Check™ provides a 100% online solution for Australian aged care providers to meet employer compliance requirements when hiring or recruiting new staff.

Contact customer support today to find out how Australian National Character Check can streamline police checks at your organisation.

We are the only Australian police check service provider that provides customer support seven days a week (excluding public holidays).