Worker screening requirements (registered NDIS providers)

Worker screening requirements (registered NDIS providers)

Registered NDIS providers must ensure that key personnel and other workers in certain types of roles have a worker screening clearance that meets the requirements of the NDIS Practice Standards. This helps ensure that key personnel and workers in these roles do not pose an unacceptable risk to the safety and wellbeing of NDIS participants.

Worker screening is only one of a range of requirements that registered NDIS providers must comply with to minimise risk of harm to people with disability.

Requirements relating to worker screening form part of the NDIS Practice Standards. Registered NDIS providers in all states and territories are required to comply with all of the relevant NDIS Practice Standards. The requirements relating to worker screening are set out in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Practice Standards – Worker Screening) Rules 2018.

For an overview and further information on NDIS Worker Screening and the NDIS Worker Screening Database, view the presentation we delivered to NDP’s ‘Cultivating your Disability Workforce’ virtual conference. 

NDIS Worker Screening Check

All states and territories have now started implementing the new NDIS worker screening arrangements as part of a national approach to worker screening.

Now that the new national worker screening arrangements have started, registered NDIS providers are required to only engage workers who have an NDIS worker screening clearance in certain roles (called 'risk assessed roles'). But states and territories have different arrangements for when a worker must apply for an NDIS Worker Screening Check. Please check the transitional and special arrangements that apply in your state or territory to determine when your workers will need to have an NDIS worker screening clearance.

The transitional and special arrangements specify alternative checks and clearances that are acceptable pending the availability of the NDIS Worker Screening Check.

How do I apply for the NDIS Worker Screening Check?

Workers engaged to provide NDIS supports and services to registered NDIS providers, unregistered NDIS providers and self-managed participants will be able to apply for an NDIS Worker Screening Check through a state or territory agency. 

Each agency has a ‘worker screening unit’. The worker screening unit is responsible for accepting and processing NDIS Worker Screening Check applications from workers, and will undertake risk assessments to determine whether a worker receives a clearance.

When a worker makes an application for an NDIS Worker Screening Check there will be a fee payable which is set by the state or territory in which the application is made.

For more information about how to apply for a Worker Screening Check, including application fees, please visit the WSU webpage for the state or territory where you live or work:

When making an application, workers will need to nominate an employer to verify that they intend to engage the worker to deliver NDIS supports or services. Most application forms will allow you to search for your employer using their Employer ID. This is the best way to find the employer and make sure you’ve selected the correct one.

Organisations can find their Employer ID and provide it to workers by following the steps below.

Registered Provider steps to find their Employer Id:

  • Enter the NDIS Commission Provider Portal - Portal
  • On the Portal entry point screen, use the drop down menu to select the Provider name. In the Role drop down, select Registrant
  • Once you are in the NDIS Commission Portal, select the My Registration tile
  • On the left side menu, towards the top you will be able to see your Registration Id. This is the Employer Id that you can advise your workers to use when applying for the NDIS Worker Screening Check

Unregistered Provider steps to find to find their Employer Id

  • Enter the NDIS Worker Screening Database Portal - Database portal
  • On the Portal entry point screen, use the drop down menu to select the Provider name. In the Role drop down, select Worker Screening for Organisations
  • Once you are in the NDIS Worker Screening Database, select the My Organisation tile
  • On the left side menu, towards the top you will be able to see your Employer Id. This is the Employer Id that you can advise your workers to use when applying for the NDIS Worker Screening Check
  • The Unregistered Provider will also need a PRODA account to login, so ensure that you have one, or register for one.

Self-managed participant steps to find their Participant Worker Screening Id

  • Enter the NDIS Worker Screening Database Portal - Database portal
  • On the Portal entry point screen, use the drop down menu to select the Participant name. In the Role drop down, select Worker Screening for NDIS Participants
  • Once you are in the NDIS Worker Screening Database, select the NDIS Participant details tile
  • On the top of the screen, you will see a Participant Worker Screening Id. This is the Employer Id that you can advise your workers to use when applying for the NDIS Worker Screening Check. Note: Please ensure you DO NOT provide your NDIS Participant Number.
  • The Self-Managed Participant will also need a PRODA account to login, so ensure that you have one, or register for one.

NDIS Worker Screening Database

The NDIS Worker Screening Database supports the NDIS Worker Screening Check. The NDIS Commission is responsible for establishing, operating and maintaining the database, which:

  • contains a register of cleared and excluded workers from all states and territories to enable national portability of clearances
  • supports national ongoing monitoring of the conduct of workers with clearances
  • means NDIS providers across the country can sponsor applications and check the clearances of prospective workers without needing to contact individual state and territory worker screening units
  • helps NDIS providers with record-keeping requirements

NDIS providers and individuals need to apply to the NDIS Commission to access information stored on the database. Access to the NDIS Worker Screening Database is now available for registered NDIS providers via the NDIS Commission Portal.

Find out more detailed information for registered NDIS providers about accessing and using the NDIS Worker Screening Database.

What checks do workers providing NDIS supports and services need?

Registered NDIS providers delivering supports and services to NDIS participants must comply with the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Practice Standards—Worker Screening) Rules 2018. This means that registered NDIS providers must ensure that workers in risk assessed roles have either an NDIS worker screening clearance or an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements.

Under the transitional and special arrangements, a registered NDIS provider may allow a person to work in a risk assessed role in a state and territory if the person has a check or clearance that is acceptable under the arrangements for that state or territory. If a worker has an acceptable check in one state or territory, this is not portable to another state or territory. This means that workers of registered NDIS providers delivering services and supports to people with disability in a number of states or territories must have an acceptable check in each state or territory in which they work.

Visit our transitional and special arrangements webpage for more information about the arrangements for each state and territory.

Identifying a risk assessed role

Registered NDIS providers are responsible for identifying which roles are risk assessed roles, and ensuring all workers in these roles have an NDIS worker screening clearance or an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements.

A risk assessed role:

  • is a key personnel role of a person or an entity as defined in s 11A of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (for example, a CEO or a Board Member)
  • involves the direct delivery of specified supports or services to a person with disability
  • is likely to require ‘more than incidental contact’ with people with disability, which includes:
    • physically touching a person with disability; or
    • building a rapport with a person with disability as an integral and ordinary part of the performance of normal duties; or
    • having contact with multiple people with disability as part of the direct delivery of a specialist disability support or service, or in a specialist disability accommodation setting.

For the purposes of determining whether the normal duties of a role will require more than incidental contact with a person with disability, contact includes physical contact, face-to-face contact, oral communication, written communication and electronic communication.

Registered NDIS providers will not be required to ensure that workers who do not work in risk assessed roles have an NDIS worker screening clearance or an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements. However, an NDIS provider or self-managed participant may, as a safety measure, choose to require a worker to have an NDIS worker screening clearance, or to have an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements, prior to engaging that worker in a role that is not a risk assessed role.

Example 1

Lee works for a registered NDIS provider that delivers mobility equipment to the homes of people with disability. As a standard part of that role, he provides training and instructions to the customer about how to use the equipment safely and makes adjustments to the equipment to make it suitable for the customer. The provider will have to ensure that Lee has an NDIS worker screening clearance (or an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements) because his role is likely to require more than incidental contact. This is because Lee has contact with people with disability and the nature of that contact (such as testing the person’s needs and preferences with them, talking about and responding to the nature of their disability) means that there is a level of openness and trust that is likely to lead Lee building rapport with his customers.

Example 2

Sue is an accountant who works in the back office of a registered NDIS provider that supplies custom prosthetics to people with disability. Sue often has coincidental contact with people with disability while she is moving through public areas of the business, such as when she walks through the lobby, at which time Sue nods and says hello to the customers. The provider does not have to ensure that Sue has an NDIS worker screening clearance (or an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements) because her role does not involve the direct delivery of custom prosthetics, and she is not required to have more than incidental contact with people with disability. This is because the duties of her role do not require her to have more than polite, functional contact with people with disability, or to get to know them in any way.

Record keeping requirements

Registered NDIS providers are required to keep a list of risk assessed roles that a person engages in.

For each risk assessed role, the list must include:

When a new risk assessed role is identified, or an existing role is reclassified as a risk assessed role following a review, the written list of roles must be updated within 20 business days of the identification or review of the risk assessed role.

Registered NDIS providers must keep an up-to-date written list of each worker who engages in a risk assessed role (not including staff members or personnel that are provided to the registered NDIS provider under an appropriate contract). The list must also contain the following information, for each worker in a risk assessed role:

  • full name, date of birth and address
  • risk assessed role or roles in which the person engages
  • if the worker may engage in a risk assessed role without an NDIS worker screening clearance:
    • the basis on which they may do so (refer to sections below regarding the exceptions to the requirement for a worker to have an NDIS worker screening clearance)
    • start and end date of the period of the exception that allows them to work in a risk engaged role
    • name of the person who supervises the worker during this period (if supervision is required)
  • if the worker may only engage in a risk assessed role with an NDIS worker screening clearance:
    • their NDIS Worker Screening Check application reference number
    • NDIS Worker Screening check number
    • expiry date of the NDIS Worker Screening Check outcome
    • whether their clearance is subject to any suspension or revocation, or any other decision which has the effect that the registered NDIS provider may not allow the worker to engage in a risk assessed role, and the nature of any such decision (for example, interim bar, suspension, exclusion)
  • records relating to any interim bar, suspension, exclusion, or any action taken by the provider in relation to these kinds of decisions in relation to any worker
  • allegations of misconduct against a worker with an NDIS worker screening clearance and action taken by the registered NDIS provider in response, including any investigation.

It is important these lists are kept up to date. A record about a worker must be kept for seven years from the date the record was made. Records should be kept in an organised, accessible and legible manner. Registered NDIS providers are required to keep the written list about workers in a way that would allow the NDIS Commission or a quality auditor to know which workers were engaged in a risk assessed role on any given day in the past seven years.

Registered NDIS providers must also keep certain records about the personnel that they engage through contractors, including a copy of any:

  • appropriate contract
  • record relating to the administration of the appropriate contract, including the enforcement of any obligation mentioned in section 5A(2) of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Practice Standards—Worker Screening) Rules 2018 (Worker Screening Rules)
  • record relating to the reasonable steps it has taken to satisfy itself that the individual has a clearance
  • record about an allegation of any misconduct against an individual that it has engaged through a contractor with an NDIS worker screening clearance.

Engaging contractors

Now that the NDIS Worker Screening Checks have commenced, there are additional responsibilities and obligations for registered NDIS providers who engage another organisation or individual to perform work as part of their provision of supports and services in the NDIS. The organisation or individual will be a contractor engaged by the registered NDIS provider. The registered NDIS provider and the contractor need to work together to ensure that any workers of a contractor, including an individual contractor themselves, have an NDIS worker screening clearance.

The Worker Screening Rules place additional requirements on registered NDIS providers that engage contractors.

Any staff obtained through a contractor must only be allowed to engage in a risk assessed role if the registered NDIS provider has:

  • identified to the contractor each risk assessed role that the individual will engage in
  • entered into an appropriate contract with the contractor for that staff member. An appropriate contract must meet the specific requirements listed in section 5A of the Worker Screening Rules;
  • taken reasonable steps to satisfy itself that the individual has an NDIS worker screening clearance.

Exceptions

A registered NDIS provider may engage a person in a risk assessed role who does not have an NDIS worker screening clearance if the registered NDIS provider is subject to the transitional and special arrangements and the registered NDIS provider is complying with those arrangements.

The requirements differ between states and territories so registered NDIS providers should ensure that they are aware of the requirements that apply in the state and/or territory in which they provide supports and services. Visit our transitional and special arrangements webpage for more information about the arrangements for each state and territory. In addition, the person being engaged by the registered NDIS provider must not have received an exclusion, interim bar, suspension or had their NDIS Worker Screening Check application cancelled.

A registered NDIS provider can also allow secondary school students on a formal work experience placement to engage in risk assessed roles without having an NDIS worker screening clearance or an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements, provided the students are directly supervised by another worker who has an NDIS worker screening clearance or acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements.

A registered NDIS provider may also engage a person in a risk assessed role who does not have an NDIS worker screening clearance if the person is in the process of obtaining a clearance and is supervised. More information on this is provided below.

Example 3

Cassie is a high school student who wants to be a physiotherapist. She is doing work experience at a physiotherapy clinic that works with NDIS participants and is run by a registered NDIS provider. She is being supervised by Isaac, who has an NDIS worker screening clearance.

Isaac calls in sick one day and no one else with an NDIS worker screening clearance is available to supervise Cassie.

Cassie is allocated to other duties at the clinic that do not involve more than incidental contact with people with disability until a supervisor with an NDIS worker screening clearance becomes available, or Isaac returns to work.

 

In some circumstances, a registered NDIS provider may engage a person in a risk assessed role while that person is in the process of obtaining an NDIS worker screening clearance. This is discussed further below.

Engaging a worker before they have an NDIS worker screening clearance

Depending on the laws in each state or territory, in certain circumstances a registered NDIS provider may allow a worker to begin working in a risk assessed role once they have submitted an application for an NDIS Worker Screening Check, provided the worker is ‘in the process of obtaining a clearance’ as defined by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Practice Standards—Worker Screening) Rules 2018.

This table sets out the relevant arrangements in each state and territory for workers who have submitted an application for an NDIS Worker Screening Check.

In these circumstances, the registered NDIS provider must ensure that the worker is appropriately supervised by a person with an NDIS worker screening clearance. It is not sufficient for a person to be supervised by a person with an acceptable check if the person supervising does not have an NDIS worker screening clearance. This fact sheet provides guidance on supervision arrangements

The registered NDIS provider must also implement a risk management plan in line with the requirements in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Practice Standards—Worker Screening) Rules 2018.

Registered NDIS providers should check the requirements in each state and territory in which they deliver NDIS supports and services, as some states and territories do not permit a worker to commence employment until they hold an NDIS worker screening clearance.

However, if the person being engaged by a registered NDIS provider in a risk assessed role has applied for an NDIS Worker Screening Check and also has an acceptable check under the relevant state and territory transitional and special arrangements, the registered NDIS provider does not need to meet the above requirements.

Engaging a worker before they have an acceptable check under the transitional and special arrangements

Depending on the laws in each state or territory, in certain circumstances a registered NDIS provider may allow a worker to begin working in a risk assessed role once they have submitted an application for an acceptable check under transitional or special arrangements.

Visit our transitional and special arrangements webpage for more information about the arrangements for each state and territory. Registered NDIS providers and workers should contact their state or territory worker screening department for further information.

Additional requirements of some states/territories

Refer to the Worker Screening Unit in your state or territory for details of any additional requirements:

Queensland

In Queensland, it is an offence for registered NDIS providers to engage a person:

  • without a clearance
  • subject to a suspension, interim bar or exclusion.

Victoria

It is important for disability workers and their employers to be aware of the prescribed offences and the consequences of a disability worker committing a prescribed offence.

The Victorian Disability Worker Commission's website provides information about all grounds for prohibition orders, including prescribed offences, at: www.vdwc.vic.gov.au/prohibition-orders and www.vdwc.vic.gov.au/making-complaints/the-complaints-process.

The Victorian Disability Worker Commission can also be contacted by emailing info@vdwc.vic.gov.au or calling 1800 497 132.

Related resources

This list of specified supports and services is an instrument incorporated in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Practice Standards – Worker Screening) Rules 2018 by reference, and is important for identifying when a worker is performing a risk assessed role which requires a clearance. A worker engaged by a registered NDIS provider in a role for which the normal duties include the direct delivery of specified supports or specified services (as listed in this document) to a person with disability must have a clearance.

In certain circumstances a registered NDIS provider may allow a worker to begin working in a risk assessed role once they have submitted an application for an NDIS Worker Screening Check, provided the worker is ‘in the process of obtaining a clearance’ as defined by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Practice Standards—Worker Screening) Rules 2018.

This table sets out the relevant arrangements in each state and territory for workers who have submitted an application for an NDIS Worker Screening Check.

This fact sheet describes the work on application arrangements including what supervision arrangements must be in place.