Hospital employment police check

Australian National Character Check (ANCC) provides nationally coordinated criminal history checks to workers seeking employment at hospitals or healthcare settings.

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 a hospital or healthcare 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 police check is for licensing, please select the “Licensing” check category on the application form.

Businesses (e.g. HR workers at hospitals) seeking bulk background checks can apply for access to the ANCC Business Portal.

Do you know that 81% of Australians think the country's healthcare system is 'very good' or 'good'? Now you know why our healthcare system is among the best in the world. This is possible because of the high standard of medical professionals and facilities. World-class hospitals are an essential component of Australia's great medical system.

Hospitals are establishments that provide medical care, psychiatric care or palliative care to patients. There are about 746 public and 601 private hospitals in Australia. These hospitals employ thousands of people in roles ranging from nurses to doctors to consultants, housekeepers to physiotherapists to ward clerks, and many more.

Because hospitals take care of vulnerable patients, there are several operational risks in running a hospital successfully. One fundamental way employers mitigate that risk is by conducting rigorous background checks on aspiring hospital employees.

A police check shows an applicant's disclosable criminal history, including arrests, convictions, criminal proceedings, court hearings, findings of guilt, traffic offences, good behaviour bonds, and more. A police check is also called a nationally coordinated criminal history check (NCHCC) in Australia.

Patients are usually in a vulnerable state. Hence, it would be unfortunate if the hospital doesn't ensure their safety. Individuals with a violent criminal record or former offenders can pose a danger to patients. Through a police check, employers can filter out individuals with an unsuitable criminal record from the hiring process.

Individuals with a criminal history of fraud offences may take advantage of patients. Depending on their offence, they may be unsuitable to work in specific roles in a hospital.

It is the responsibility of the administrators to ensure the hospital is a safe workplace. Police checks are a way for employers and decision makers to reduce risk.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is the official body coordinating police checks in Australia. Due to the high demand for police checks, ACIC works with accredited bodies and police agencies to make the police checking service accessible. Australia National Character Check (ANCC) is one of Australia's leading accredited police checking agencies.

Here's how you can get a background check for hospital employment in Australia:

You can apply for the police check through a police agency or an accredited ACIC body. You'll typically have to fill out an online form with your name, address, DOB, and the purpose of the check. You must also upload four identity documents.

They include:

• a) One Commencement of Identity Document
• b) One Primary Use in the Community Document
• c) Two Secondary Use in the Community Document.

You must also pay the online application fee.

The police agency or accredited body processing your application will validate your identity based on the uploaded documents. Afterwards, they will forward your application to the National Police Checking Service (NSS).

NSS is the IT system that runs a name-matching algorithm to find a potential criminal record. The system immediately returns a 'No disclosable court outcome (NDCO)' if it doesn't find one. However, if the system encounters a match, the details are forwarded to the relevant police agency(s) for further assessment. The appropriate police agency(s) verifies whether the match is valid. If that's not the case, they send back an NDCO. But a good match goes through the vetting stage.

The vetting process involves applying the spent convictions legislation and information release policies to determine which criminal offences are disclosable before sending the result to the body that requested the check.

Once the police agency or ACIC-accredited body gets the police check result, they notify the applicant.

AIC-accredited bodies charge different rates. E.g., ANCC charges a base fee of $52.90 + GST per police check.

70% of applications return an NDCO and the check result is usually available on the same day. However, for the other 30% referred for manual processing, it can take longer than 10 business days before the results are available.

A police check can only be carried out with the informed consent of the person who is the subject of the check.

Police checks do not officially expire. However, employers set acceptable timeframes based on their operational requirements and risks. Hospitals and healthcare organisations generally don’t accept

ANCC offers efficient police checks for individuals and businesses in the healthcare sector. You can now order a police check through our:

Our platform is ideal for individuals seeking employment in hospitals. The application process only takes minutes. You can expect to get your completed NCCHC within 24 hours in most instances (70% of instances).

Are you an HR manager in a hospital? ANCC's business portal makes it easy for hiring managers to order and track bulk police checks for applicants. This makes it easy to manage and compare multiple applications, ensuring a sound hiring decision.