Australia is experiencing considerable growth in the number of businesses and support workers providing services to both NDIS and Aged Care recipients. In recognition of this, the Department of Health is undertaking a review of worker screening requirements and how to best streamline these across the two areas.
Presently, workers providing Aged Care services are required to undertake a National Police Check and, for those who had resided outside Australia after 16 years of age, to provide a statutory declaration. This is to ensure workers are suitable to provide care to the aged. The Police Certificate Guidelines for Aged Care Providers can be found here.
As of February 1st, 2021, the NDIS worker screening requirements were implemented, superseding national police checks and broadening the scope of historical information pertinent to the delivery of services to the vulnerable. To learn more about the changes to NDIS Worker Screening Requirements see our article from earlier this year here.
Currently, workers providing aged care and NDIS services must fulfil both of the, apparently duplicated, screening requirements.
As with the phasing out of police checks for NDIS workers in lieu of the more comprehensive NDIS Worker Screening, it would appear to make sense for both services to standardise these checks, with the NDIS Worker Screening appearing to be best practice.
SoCom Consulting will be monitoring developments and will provide further updates as more information becomes available.
SoCom Consulting advises on new NDIS and Aged Care Provider applications and the compliance requirements around documentation and worker obligations. To discuss how we can assist you, Contact Us.
