The DHS Screening Unit continues to operate during the COVID-19 response.
Check applications can be started by an individual or by an organisation on behalf of their employees or volunteers. Sole-traders, contractors and self-employed people are considered organisations, too.
Individuals can do their own application from start to finish.
Organisations need to register with the Screening Unit before they can do any applications.
After an organisation starts an application, the Screening Unit emails the individual, asking them to login to the system, confirm their identity, and complete and submit the application.
The Screening Unit uses an individual’s name, previous names, date of birth and residential information to get a national criminal history record from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and to check the South Australian Child Protection database.
If there is no name match in the ACIC database, it suggests the individual has no relevant criminal history. ACIC responds to the Screening Unit with a ‘no disclosable court outcomes’ result.
If there are multiple name matches in the ACIC database, they will use extra information, e.g. previous addresses or legal names, to confirm or rule out potential matches.
Once ACIC confirms a name match, they forward the application to the relevant police jurisdiction to check, as legislation about the type of information that can be released varies between states. When ACIC gets the results back from the state police, they respond to the Screening Unit with any ‘disclosable court outcome(s)’.
Depending on the type of check being done, information in a disclosable court outcome may include:
The table below outlines what information the Screening Unit uses for different types of check.
Type of check | Working with children | Disability services | Aged care sector | Vulnerable person-related | General employment probity | Police check (provided by SA Police, not DHS Screening Unit) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Required by law? | Yes | Yes | Yes (Commonwealth) | No | No | No |
Sources of information | National criminal history record check South Australian government agencies related to care concerns and investigations Applicant declarations | National criminal history record check South Australian government agencies related to care concerns and investigations Applicant declarations | National criminal history record check Applicant declarations | National criminal history record check Applicant declarations | National criminal history record check Applicant declarations | National criminal history record check |
Child protection information included? | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Information assessed | National police apprehension reports Court sentencing remarks National convictions – withdrawn, spent, non-convictions. National charges – pending, withdrawn, dismissed, acquitted Submissions from or interviews with the individual about relevant assessable information | SA Police apprehension reports Court sentencing remarks National convictions – withdrawn, spent, non-convictions. National charges – pending, withdrawn, dismissed Submissions from or interviews with the individual about relevant assessable information | National convictions – including SA spent convictions Submissions from or interviews with the individual about relevant assessable information | National convictions – including SA spent convictions Submissions from or interviews with the individual about relevant assessable information | National convictions – including certain types of spent convictions Submissions from or interviews with the individual about relevant assessable information | National convictions – including certain types of spent convictions |
Convictions likely to result in an unsuccessful application | Murder Sexual assault Violence relating to a child Child pornography Child prostitution Child neglect | Murder Sexual assault Serious violent offences Aggravated assault Any offence committed against children or an individual with disability Theft or fraud related offences against an individual with disability or older person Drug supply offences relating to a child, older person, individual with disability | Murder Sexual assault Assault resulting in prison sentence | Dependant on role | Dependant on role | Defined by the organisation |
There are laws for when an individual’s older, less serious convictions (or findings of guilt) are no longer shown on their criminal record. The South Australian law for these ‘spent convictions’ is the Spent Convictions Act 2009.
Spent convictions protect people from unreasonable discrimination based on minor or old convictions, provided they haven’t re-offended. Making sure an individual’s past mistakes don’t affect the rest of their lives is part of rehabilitating offenders.
Some convictions are never spent, such as sex offences and convictions with sentences of more than 12 months imprisonment for adults, or 24 months imprisonment for juveniles.
Spent convictions do not show on a national police check. However, the law says they can be included for checks of people working or volunteering with children, people with disability, vulnerable people, or in the aged care sector.
If a Court proves an offence or finds an offender guilty but decides not to record a conviction against them, it is a spent offence.
If an offence is quashed (set aside) by a Court, the individual is given a pardon, or the qualification period lapses, it becomes a spent offence.
Otherwise, for adults in South Australia, an eligible conviction becomes spent after 10 years have passed since a Court proved the offence or found the offender guilty, provided the individual has been offence-free in this time. For juveniles in South Australia, it becomes spent after five years offence-free.
There are spent conviction laws covering federal and state-based offences in every state and territory, except Victoria. The Commonwealth Government also has overarching laws about how old conviction information is collected, used and shared.
Contact the police of the state or territory where you may have committed an offence to get more information about their information release policies and legislation.
The Screening Unit finishes most check applications within three weeks. It can take longer than this if there is a lot of information to assess or it is complex.
Processing can take longer than three weeks if:
To avoid delays:
It is an offence to provide misleading information to the Screening Unit, so applicants should double-check all information is correct.
You can check the status of your application at any time.
Once your application is processed, the Screening Unit will tell you the result (except for general employment probity check). If an organisation started the application on your behalf, the result will be emailed to them.
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