Department of Health police checks in Australia

Australian National Character Check (ANCC) provides nationally coordinated criminal history checks to workers seeking employment or licensing with the Department of Health in Australia.

Check timeframes: 70 percent of police checks are returned to applicants within 24 hours. Results are emailed on the same day they are received. Approximately 30 percent of checks may be referred to one or more police agencies and can take longer than 10 business days to be returned, due to the manual nature of this process.

Do you work in HR in an Australian government or health organisation and need police checks for workers? Australian National Character Check (ANCC) provides a streamlined solution for national police checks via our business portal.

Please apply for your nationally coordinated criminal history check via the individual portal here. If the purpose of the police check is for employment, individual applicants should select the “Employment” check category on their application form. If the purpose of the check is for licensing, please select the “Licensing” check category on the application form. If you are being engaged by a commonwealth government agency, please select ‘Commonwealth’ on the police check application form.

Businesses (e.g. government or healthcare organisations) seeking bulk background checks can apply for access to the ANCC Business Portal.

Australia’s Department of Health is responsible for health research, funding, promotion, and regulation to foster better health and well-being for Australians, now and for future generations.

As part of their regulatory framework, they provide guidelines on ensuring patient safety across Australia. Police checks are a crucial component of this framework. By requiring police checks from healthcare staff, administration staff and contractors, the Department of Health ensures the safety of hospitals, care homes, and other health-related facilities.

A police check reveals the applicant’s criminal record. This record may include charges, court hearings and convictions, traffic offences, good bond behaviour, findings of guilt, and other court orders. In Australia, a police check is officially referred to as a nationally coordinated criminal history check (NCCHC).

Police checks are essential in the health sector because they ensure the safety of patients, staff, and other key personnel. Hiring managers in the healthcare sector assess the applicant’s criminal record to determine the risk they pose before making any hiring decision.

The Department of Health precludes individuals with the following offences from working in the health and aged care sector:

• - A conviction for sexual assault or murder
• - A conviction of, and imprisonment sentence for, any other form of assault.

Other types of offences are assessed on a case-by-case basis. Some factors employers in the health sector consider before making a final decision include the relevance of the crime, timing, offence pattern, employment history, and the degree of access to the care recipient in the role.

The Department of Health requires the following personnel to undergo a police check before working in a healthcare facility:

• ✔ Staff and volunteers
• ✔ Approved key personnel
• ✔ Contractors and independent contractors
• ✔ New staff
• ✔ Staff and volunteers who have resided overseas
• ✔ Community visitors scheme (CSV) volunteers.

Also, the Department of Health requires all healthcare employees to renew their police check every three years. A routine police check helps employers stay up-to-date with the suitability of their staff to provide care to patients.

Moreover, health-related establishments must have a policy that requires employees to disclose any criminal history during the three-year gap, so employers can consistently meet their operational requirements.

Although the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is officially responsible for police checks in Australia, they work with other accredited bodies and police agencies to make police checking accessible.

Here are the steps for getting a police check in Australia:

You can apply through an ACIC-accredited body or a police agency. Applications are usually online, and you will fill out your name, address, and date of birth. Make sure to accurately indicate the purpose of the check, so the results are relevant for employment in the health sector.

You’ll have to submit four identification documents. They include:

• ✔ One commencement identity document;
• ✔ One primary use in the community document;
• ✔ Two secondary use in community documents;
• ✔ A biometric link to confirm your identity.

Finally, you must pay the application fee. ACIC-accredited bodies charge differently. For instance, Australian National Character Check (ANCC) charges a base fee of $52.90 + GST per police check.

The police agency or accredited body first verifies your identity. They then forward your details to the National Police Checking Service Support System (NSS), ACIC’s IT system.

NSS runs a name-matching algorithm to pull out a potential match based on the submitted details. If it doesn’t find one, it returns a ‘no disclosable court outcome (NDCO)’ to the requesting body. However, if it does find one, the system sends the details to the relevant police agency for further processing. The appropriate police agency(s) confirms the validity of the potential match. They return an NDCO for an invalid match. A valid match goes through the vetting stage, where they apply the spent convictions scheme to determine which criminal records are releasable.

The police agency or accredited ACIC body notifies you once you receive your check result.

About 70% of police checks are returned on the same day because there are no matches on the national database. However, the other 30% must be manually processed due to a potential match. This process can take longer than 10 business days.

Every nationally coordinated criminal history check report contains the following:

• ✔ The applicant’s full name and date of birth
• ✔ The date of issue
• ✔ The reference number.

Also, the police check result discloses whether a person:

• ✔ Has been convicted of a disclosable offence
• ✔ Is the subject of a pending criminal charge in an Australian court

While police checks do not expire, they only contain criminal records until the issue date. That’s why the Department of Health generally requires employees to undergo police checks every three years. New applicants must submit a check no longer than 6 months old however this policy may vary from each department depending on their risk mitigation policies or legislative requirements.

ANCC provides affordable police checking services for individuals and hiring managers. Check out our portals today to get started.

Are you seeking employment in the sector? Or are you health-related employment looking for an efficient police check? With ANCC, you can order, track, and get efficient police check results.

Hiring managers in the healthcare sector can now use ANCC’s business portal to manage bulk police checks. You can now track and order multiple police checks in real-time, helping you to seamlessly comply with the Department of Health’s police check requirements.