If your organisation provides health, welfare, education, sporting or recreational, religious or spiritual, child care or residential services wholly or partly for children, you will need to ensure that a criminal history assessment is conducted for every person in your organisation who is working with children (unless an exemption applies).
There are three ways your organisation can ensure that a criminal history assessment is conducted for people working with children:
Obtain an assessment and letter of clearance from the DFC Screening Unit
You may choose to apply to the DFC Screening Unit for a full criminal history assessment and letter of clearance. Information about the Screening Unit is available from
www.dfc.sa.gov.au/pub/screening.
Example: Sally is the preferred applicant for a position at a child-care centre. As the position involves working with children, a criminal history assessment is required.
Sally submits an application through the child care centre to the DFC Screening Unit. On completion of the assessment, Sally receives a letter of clearance to work with children and the child care centre receives written confirmation via email that Sally has been cleared.
The child care centre accepts the letter of clearance and offers Sally the position.
Obtain a criminal history report and conduct the assessment yourself
To conduct a criminal history assessment, you should ensure that a report is obtained on the criminal history (if any) of each person occupying or acting in a prescribed position. The report must be obtained from South Australia Police or an authorised screening unit that is accredited with CrimTrac.
In the majority of cases, a person will have no criminal history. In these cases, the assessment is successfully completed and no further action in respect to an assessment is required.
Where an individual does have a criminal history, you must assess this information in accordance with Standard 5 of the Standards for dealing with information obtained about the criminal history of employees and volunteers who work with children. This Standard sets out the contextual and situational factors an organisation must consider when assessing criminal history information.
Example: Peter is the preferred applicant for a position coaching the junior teams in a football club. As the position involves working with children, the law requires that the club conduct a criminal history assessment before engaging Peter.
The club directs Peter to obtain a criminal history report from South Australia Police and provide it to the club. The club also advises Peter that if the report reveals a criminal history, he may also submit contextual information surrounding the offences for consideration in the assessment process.
The report reveals two minor traffic offences from five years ago. No other criminal history is revealed. Peter provides the club with a written submission providing contextual information about the offences.
The club assesses Peter’s criminal history in accordance with the Standards for dealing with the criminal history of people working with children. The club takes into account contextual factors relating to the offences (including the minor nature of the offences, the length of time that has since elapsed and Peter’s submission) and situational factors (including that the position does not involve transport of children) and decides that Peter does not pose an increased risk of harm to children. Peter is offered the coaching position.
Accept “other evidence” and conduct an assessment yourself
A person working with children in your organisation may have previously obtained a criminal history report or letter of clearance for another purpose (such as employment or volunteering). In some cases, you can accept this evidence to assess a person’s suitability to work with children
Any of the following forms of evidence may be accepted to assess a person’s suitability to work with children (provided it was obtained within the last three years):
- A National Police Certificate that does not expressly state that it cannot be used as a clearance to work with children
- A letter of clearance from the DFC Screening Branch or a valid registration document from the Teachers Registration Board
- A current interstate working with children check.
Your organisation will need to decide whether it will accept these types of evidence and communicate the decision to all members of the organisation.
Example: Jan is employed as a teacher and offers to volunteer at her church’s Sunday school class. The church agrees to accept her valid teacher’s registration document as evidence that she does not pose an increased risk to children.
Example: Last year Daniel obtained a letter of clearance from the DFC Screening Unit in order to volunteer at his daughter’s netball camp. Daniel has offered to volunteer at the camp again this year. As the letter of clearance is less than three years old, the camp organisers can accept Daniel’s letter of clearance as evidence that Daniel does not pose an increased risk to children.
In all cases, the final decision of whether to engage or retain a person to work with children rests with your organisation.
You must retain appropriate records as evidence that decisions made by your organisation are rigorous, defensible and transparent.
Who is not allowed to work with children?
It is up to your organisation to decide if someone’s criminal history should preclude them from being hired or continuing to act in their current role. This must be determined on a case by case basis. Even if a police check reveals a criminal record, it may still be acceptable for a person to work with children. When making an assessment of risk based on a person’s criminal history, you should consider the seriousness and relevance of the conviction, the level of access the person has to children and the length of time since the conviction.
In assessing a person’s suitability to work with children, you must adhere to the standards and guidelines set out in the Child Safe Environments: Standards for dealing with information obtained about the criminal history of employees and volunteers who work with children issued by the Chief Executive of the Department for Families and Communities under section 8A (j) of the Children’s Protection Act 1993.
In general, a person convicted of an offence involving serious violence, sexual assault, or where a child was the victim would not be regarded as suitable to work with children. Organisations must also consider the relevance of the conviction to the job role. For example, where a position involves the transport of children, a history of road traffic offences involving unsafe driving would generally be a bar to employment. In some cases, a long period of good behaviour since conviction may be sufficient to wipe the slate clean. However, no general rule or rule of thumb can replace the need for an examination of the facts of the individual case.
Under the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006 some people are absolutely prohibited from working with children because they have been convicted of serious offences against children (generally sex offences or offences of violence with a sexual element). These offenders are recorded on the Australian National Child Sex Offenders Register (ANCOR). It is an offence for a registrable offender to apply for child-related work. A maximum penalty of 2 years imprisonment or $10 000 applies.
Further information: