Babysitting service police checks in Australia

Whether you need time to take care of your relationships or you want to teach your child independence, parents across Australia employ babysitting services for various reasons. Babysitting is a profitable business, with less experienced individuals earning an average of $20 to $30 per hour, while more experienced individuals can earn up to $40 per hour.

Unlike nannies employed regularly (or semi-regularly), babysitters are essentially as-needed caregivers. Since this profession involves childcare, babysitters mustn’t pose a significant risk to children. That’s why Australian parents and organisations require a minimum standard for nannies. Some of these requirements include holding a Working with Children Check (WWCC), a national background check, and referee checks, among others.

Officially called a nationally coordinated criminal history check (NCCHC), a police check reveals an applicant’s criminal record, including information on convictions, arrests, criminal proceedings, traffic offences, sexual offences and more.

Police checks are increasingly crucial in babysitting hiring because parents want that added layer of trust before bringing someone to care for their child. Since children are considered a vulnerable group, individuals with violent tendencies or sexual-related offences pose a risk to children. A police check reveals an applicant’s criminal history, which gives insight into any significant threat they pose to children.

Moreover, most babysitters have access to their client’s homes. Individuals with an established record of theft can also pose a risk to clients. A police check may help filter out babysitters with theft risk.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) works with accredited bodies and police agencies across the country to make police checking services accessible.

Police check applications are processed in the following stages:

You can apply for a police check through an accredited ACIC body or a police agency. Applications are typically online and involve filling out an online form with your name, date of birth, address and more. You must also upload the four identification documents. These are:

• ✔ One commencement of ID document
• ✔ One primary use in community document
• ✔ Two secondary use in community documents

After uploading these documents, you must pay the application fee. As one of Australia’s leading and affordable ACIC-accredited agencies, Australian National Character Check (ANCC) charges a base fee of $52.90 + GST per check.

After applying, the police agency or accredited body first confirms your identity to avoid identity theft. Once that is established, they forward your application to the National Police Checking Service Support System (NSS). It runs a name-matching algorithm to pull out a potential match from its database.

If it finds no match, the system instantly returns a ‘No disclosable court outcome (NDCO)’ to the accredited ACIC body or police agency that submitted the check.

Conversely, if it finds a match, it forwards those details to the relevant police agency that determines its validity by comparing it with police information. For a non-valid match, the appropriate police agency returns an NDCO to the body that submitted the check. However, a valid match will go through the vetting process.

In the vetting process, the relevant police agency applies the spent conviction scheme and information release policies to determine which criminal records are releasable. After that, they send the final police check result to the body that requested the check on the applicant’s behalf.

The police agency or ACIC-accredited body notifies you once the police check result is available.

If you submit your police check request through a police agency, you will receive your result as a national police certificate (NPC). If you submit your check through an accredited body, you may receive your check result on a branded NCCHC certificate. Note that only disclosable court outcomes are included in the police check certificate.

About 70% of applications get an instant result because the system instantly returns an NDCO result (no disclosable court outcomes). However, the other 30% have to be manually reviewed by the relevant police agency(s), and this process may take longer than 10 business days.

Yes, informed consent is collected by our system from each applicant. Without informed consent, an application cannot be processed.

Technically speaking, police checks do not expire. However, as point-in-time checks, police checks only reveal information up until the date the check was conducted. Hence, the organisation requesting the check determines an acceptable time frame based on its operational requirements or risk assessments. Most babysitting services in Australia usually prefer a police check less than six months old.

Are you looking for a police check for babysitting services? ANCC provides quick, efficient and affordable police checking services for:

Individuals looking to work as babysitters can now promptly obtain a police check through our portal. This portal allows you to track police check applications and get real-time results quickly.

Businesses providing babysitting services can order bulk police checks for applicants through ANCC’s business portal. The business portal allows you to track and manage checks in real-time. Set up a business account today to get started!