Worker Screening for Managers and HR

Under the NDIS worker screening rules, registered providers must make sure that everyone in a risk assessed role has an NDIS Worker Screening Check clearance. A risk assessed role is a key personnel role, a role that directly delivers specified supports or services to people with disability, or a role likely to involve more than incidental contact with people with disability. This lesson explains each part of the definition, gives examples of roles that do and do not need a clearance, and reminds you that staff, volunteers and students can all hold risk assessed roles.

NDIS Worker Screening Checks are carried out by the worker screening unit in each state and territory on behalf of the NDIS Commission. Workers apply in the state or territory where they live, and a clearance is nationally recognised and generally valid for five years. Employers verify applications and link workers in the NDIS Worker Screening Database through the NDIS Commission portal. This lesson explains how the process works, how to check a worker's status, and why linking and unlinking workers accurately matters for notifications.

Registered NDIS providers must keep written records about their risk assessed roles and about each worker in those roles. The role record includes the title, which part of the definition applies, a description, the date it was assessed and who assessed it, updated within 20 business days of a new or reclassified role. Worker records include identity details, roles, clearance details, any interim bar, suspension or exclusion, action taken and allegations of misconduct. Records must be kept for 7 years and survive a worker being unlinked. This lesson explains how to keep them well.

A worker's clearance status can change. A worker screening unit can exclude a worker, suspend a clearance while new information is assessed, or impose an interim bar during an application or review. When any of these happens, the worker must not work in a risk assessed role. This lesson explains how you will find out, the immediate steps to take, how to record the decision and actions, how to treat the worker fairly while following our human resources processes, and when an allegation also needs to go through our incident management system.

There are limited situations where a person can work in a risk assessed role without a clearance. Some states and territories allow working on application, where a worker starts after applying but before a decision; the provider must check local rules, have a written risk management plan and make sure the worker is always supervised by someone with a clearance. Secondary school students on formal work experience must be directly supervised by a cleared worker. Higher education students and contractors have their own arrangements. This lesson explains each exception and the records it needs.

Under the Aged Care Act 2024, aged care workers and responsible persons of registered providers need either a police certificate no older than three years that does not record certain offences, or an NDIS Worker Screening Check clearance. The provider must assess police certificates for the offences that prevent a person working in aged care, and workers must tell us immediately if their circumstances change. Providers must also check the banning orders register before engaging someone. A national worker screening check for the care and support sector is being developed. This lesson summarises the current rules.

This case study follows Farah, a human resources officer preparing for a certification audit. While checking our worker screening records against the roster, she finds a role that has never been assessed, a worker whose clearance has expired, and records that only exist in the portal. The lesson walks through how she fixes each gap, starting with anything that puts participants at risk today, and how the team builds a routine so the gaps do not return. Key points: check the roster against the records, act on risk first, and keep our own records.

This case study follows Ruben, an on call manager who receives a notification late on a Friday that a support worker's clearance has been suspended. The worker is rostered on an overnight shift that starts in two hours. The lesson walks through the immediate steps: removing the worker from risk assessed duties, covering the shift, recording actions, checking incident duties and treating the worker fairly and confidentially. It finishes by bringing together the key messages of the whole course. Key points: there is no grace period, act on risk now, and follow a fair process.