In order to ensure the safety of vulnerable people, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission requires providers to ensure that staff, contractors and volunteers who work with people with disability are approved by a state authority.
Currently the Worker Screening requirements are under interim arrangements, meaning that the worker checks are managed at a state level until Federal arrangements come into force. In the meantime, providers are still required to satisfy some requirements imposed by the federally administered NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
These requirements include:
- Identifying and documenting which roles need checks
- Ensuring all workers in the above roles have a state appropriate check
- Specified record-keeping requirements.
The roles which workers will need checks for are called ‘risk-assessed roles’. These are roles in which the worker has more that incidental contact with a person with disability. In addition, ‘risk-assessed’ roles include ‘key personnel’ roles such as the CEO, other senior managers who are responsible for executive decisions of the organisation, and members of the organisation’s board of directors or governing body.
Providers may engage workers in risk-assessed roles before the worker has received a check, however there are additional requirements for providers who do so.
Our Worker Screening Resources
In response to the NDIS Worker Screening requirements we have developed several resources:
- Policy template: Worker Screening (Disability);
- Template: Risk Assessed Roles List;
- Template: Risk Management Plan for Unscreened Workers;
- Template: Worker Screening Register.
These resources will help to guide organisations through their obligations under the interim Worker Screening arrangements, as well as satisfy all of the Commission’s documentation requirements.
The policy template contains information regarding acceptable checks on a state by state basis, as per the interim arrangements. When the National Worker Screening database comes into force, the list of acceptable documents will change to those determined as appropriate by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
The Worker Screening register is in SPP as a dynamic Risk & Compliance register, allowing you to attach documents and assign email reminders to help you keep track of workers’ screening checks all in the one place. There is also an excel version of the register.
Subscribers can download, edit and implement our Worker Screening resources by signing in to SPP. Organisations who are not subscribed can take out a free trial or click the button below to sign up.
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