The DHS Screening Unit continues to operate during the COVID-19 response.
The DHS Screening Unit continues to operate during the COVID-19 response.
Registered NDIS providers must ensure that key personnel and other workers in certain types of roles have a worker screening clearance. In SA this is called a NDIS worker check.
A NDIS worker check is an assessment of whether a person who works, or seeks to work, with people with disability poses a risk of harm to them. It will determine whether a person is cleared or excluded from working in certain roles with people with disability.
Providers’ recruitment, training and supervision processes—as well as worker screening requirements—will assist in avoiding risk to people with disability from people working in the NDIS who are unsuitable.
A NDIS worker check is valid for five years, portable across roles, organisations and all states and territories and subject to ongoing national monitoring.
In SA, the following checks will be recognised for NDIS work until they expire. Then you need to apply for a NDIS worker check:
Your employer will tell you if you need a NDIS worker check.
Workers who are engaged in risk-assessed roles must have a NDIS worker check. A risk-assessed role is one that:
Workers include:
Registered NDIS employers are responsible for identifying which roles are risk-assessed roles.
How to identify which roles in your organisation are risk-assessed roles (NDIS Commission)
Workers of registered NDIS providers who are not engaged in a risk assessed role do not need a NDIS worker check. However, registered NDIS providers may choose to ask those workers to apply for an NDIS worker check and obtain a clearance.
Workers of unregistered NDIS providers and self-managed participants do not need a check.
In South Australia, a NDIS worker cannot work until they have a clearance.
Unregistered NDIS providers can ask workers to have a NDIS worker check, but this is not a requirement. If you and your workers do not have a NDIS worker check, an NDIS participant may choose not to use your business.
Self-managed participants may also ask their NDIS workers to have a NDIS worker check.
If you wish to apply for a NDIS worker check, or have your workers apply for one, you can apply to access the NDIS Worker Screening Database using an online form.
Before providing access to the NDIS Worker Screening Database, the NDIS Commission will need to confirm that you are engaged in delivering NDIS supports and services or are a self-managed participant.
Worker screening for unregistered NDIS providers (NDIS Commission)
Worker screening for self-managed participants (NDIS Commission)
If your role includes children with disability, you also need a Working with Children Check.
Before you apply for an NDIS worker check, confirm that you do not have an existing DHS screening that is recognised for NDIS work:
You need to be working or intending to work in SA to apply for a NDIS worker check in SA.
You’ll need your identification documents to verify your ID online, and your employer’s NDIS number as your application needs to be verified by an NDIS employer.
Refer to the NDIS Commission worker screening webpages for workers for more information:
If you have a volunteer NDIS worker check and then move into paid employment you will need to pay a fee based on the time that is left to expire on your check.
You can request to change your check from volunteer to paid employment. Email DHSScreeningUnit@sa.gov.au
See Fees and Payment for the fee.
Check how your application is progressing, the outcome, and when your check expires.
You must advise the Screening Unit if you change your name or address, or start using an alias, within three months of the change. A $50,000 penalty applies if you do not.
You can ask to cancel your NDIS worker check clearance at any time. Email DHSScreeningUnit@sa.gov.au
We cannot cancel the clearance if:
Registered NDIS providers need to keep records of workers in risk-assessed roles.
This includes evidence of a valid worker screening including:
For workers holding a DHS screening that is recognised for NDIS work, NDIS providers can obtain this information via their Screening Unit organisational portal
NDIS self-managed participants can ask to verify a worker has a DHS screening by emailing DHSScreeningUnit@sa.gov.au.
If you cannot email, phone our Customer Services Team on 1300 321 592
You must include the following information:
For privacy and confidentiality reasons, we will contact the worker and ask for their permission to release their personal information, before releasing it to you. We will provide the worker with your name, as the person who is seeking their personal information.
When we have the worker's permission, we will provide you with confirmation of the DHS screening/s that the worker holds as well as the screening expiry date/s.
For workers who hold a NDIS worker check, registered NDIS providers and self-managed participants can fin the necessary information via their NDIS Worker Screening Database portal.
The NDIS Worker Screening Database (NWSD) is held by the NDIS Commission.
The database:
The NWSD only holds information about workers who have a NDIS worker screening. It does not hold information about state-based checks that are recognised for NDIS work. Nor does it hold the personal information used by a state or territory worker screening unit to assess a worker’s NDIS worker screening.