Aged care worker screening requirements decide whether a support worker is allowed through a participant's front door. A registered Support at Home provider must hold screening evidence for every aged care worker and every responsible person before that person delivers or oversees care, and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing accepts two routes: a police certificate that is not older than three years and does not record certain offences, or an NDIS worker screening check. This article is general guidance for providers and not legal advice.
Screening sits before every other credential. A worker can hold a Certificate III, current first aid and clean references and still be ineligible to attend a single visit. The failure is rarely a missing check. It is more often a check obtained but never assessed, recorded or re-dated, leaving the provider unable to show an auditor what it decided and when.
Two Ways to Satisfy Aged Care Worker Screening Requirements
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing states that all aged care workers and responsible persons must have either a police certificate not older than three years that does not record certain convictions or offences, or an NDIS worker screening check. The two are alternatives rather than a pair.
A provider has to decide per person which route applies, hold the matching evidence, and track a different expiry rule for each. A police certificate ages out on a fixed three year clock. An NDIS check can be suspended or cancelled mid-term by the issuing authority, which is a different risk and needs a different control.
The police certificate route
A police certificate, aged care's default screening instrument, states a person's disclosable criminal history at a point in time, and holding one is not the end of the obligation. The Department is explicit that the registered provider must assess the certificate for the offences that preclude aged care work, so the decision and the record are the provider's, not the issuing agency's. Hand a new worker the police check definition if the paperwork is unfamiliar.
Three years is the outer limit, not a target. A certificate issued 35 months ago satisfies the rule today and fails it next month, so renewal has to be scheduled against the issue date rather than the hire date. The worker carries a duty too: the Department states they must immediately notify their employer if their circumstances change after assessment.
The NDIS worker screening check route
An NDIS worker screening check is a different instrument and a broader one. It is carried out by a state or territory worker screening unit and, according to the Department, examines both national criminal history and work misconduct history. A police certificate looks only at criminal history.
The Department recognises the NDIS check in aged care, and a worker who holds one does not need a police certificate. It applies to people in risk-assessed roles with a registered NDIS provider and may also apply where an aged care setting supports NDIS participants, so a provider running aged care and disability services off one workforce avoids screening the same person twice. The trade-off is cancellation risk: a worker must immediately notify their employer if the check is suspended or cancelled, so periodic re-verification against the issuing unit is the counterweight to self-reporting.
The Offences That Preclude Aged Care Work
The precluding offences differ by provider, and that catches people out. The Department publishes two lists, and which applies depends on the program the services are delivered under.
- Registered providers - the provider must assess the certificate for a conviction for murder, a conviction for sexual assault, and a conviction and imprisonment sentence for any other assault.
- Commonwealth Home Support Program and NATSIFACP services - a conviction for an offence involving the death of a person, and, in the past five years, a conviction and imprisonment sentence of one year or longer for a sex related offence or crime including sexual assault against an adult or child, child abuse material offences, an indecent act involving a child, or an offence involving dishonesty.
Two things follow. A conviction alone does not always preclude, because for assault other than sexual assault the wording turns on a conviction and a sentence of imprisonment. And a provider delivering both Support at Home and Commonwealth Home Support Program services works to two tests at once, so one assessment template will under-screen part of the workforce.
Responsible Persons Screening
Responsible persons screening sits inside the worker screening requirements rather than alongside them. The Department names a CEO and a Board member as examples, and the same two options apply: a police certificate not older than three years and clear of the precluding offences, or an NDIS worker screening check.
This is the requirement most often missed, because a responsible person does not appear on a roster and never attends a participant's home. Nobody's shift is blocked when a director's certificate lapses, so nothing surfaces the gap until an audit asks for the register. It belongs in the governance calendar next to board renewals, not the recruitment workflow. Volunteers deserve a documented decision too, since the Department groups them with workers and responsible persons.
Worker Screening Records a Provider Must Hold
Holding a check and being able to prove you held it are two separate obligations. The Aged Care Rules worker screening provisions prescribe the requirements, and the Department sets the surrounding duties out in its compliance requirements for Support at Home providers. This article states no retention period, because that figure could not be verified against the Rules text, and Limitations says so. A provider does not have to wait on that answer to hold worker screening records that answer an auditor's questions on their face.
- Who was screened - name and role, and whether the person is an aged care worker, a responsible person or a participant-facing volunteer.
- Which instrument was relied on - police certificate or NDIS worker screening check, and the issuing body.
- The dates - date of issue, date the provider assessed it, and the date the three year limit expires.
- The outcome and the assessor - the named person who reviewed the certificate against the precluding offences and the decision they reached.
- Anything that changed since - a notification of changed circumstances, suspension or cancellation, and what the provider did about it.
Scattered expiry dates belong in one list somebody is accountable for reviewing, which is what a Credential Expiry Tracker gives you over a reminder in one person's calendar.
What the 2026 Screening Change Does Not Yet Say
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has announced that from 2026 it will introduce a new worker screening process that aligns with the NDIS. At the time of writing that is the whole of the published commitment. No commencement date, no transition period and no compliance deadline has been published alongside it, and this article will not supply one.
Separately, the Department describes work with states and territories on a national worker screening check for the care and support economy, intended to strengthen protections for people receiving government-funded care and increase consistency across sectors and jurisdictions, led by a taskforce within the Department of Finance. Neither announcement changes an obligation today.
The useful response to an announcement with no date is unglamorous: keep running the current rules properly and make the current system cheap to change. A provider whose evidence already sits in a structured register with named instruments, issue dates and outcomes will re-map quickly. One holding scanned certificates in a shared folder will not.
Building Screening Into Recruitment
Screening fails at the seams rather than in the middle, which puts the two repairs in the hiring sequence and the ongoing register. Most providers get there faster from a Staff Recruitment and Selection Policy Template than from a blank page, because the check then sits inside recruitment with an owner and a stop point before an offer becomes a shift. For participant-facing roles a Working with Vulnerable People policy template covers the adjacent safeguarding ground. Whether an additional state or territory check applies is a jurisdiction-specific question the Commonwealth rules do not settle, so confirm it locally.
Related Resources
- Staff Recruitment and Selection Policy Template - puts the screening step inside the hiring sequence.
- Working with Vulnerable People policy template - safeguarding obligations around participant-facing roles.
- Onboarding and Orientation Policy Template - where the worker's notification duty gets documented.
- Credential Expiry Tracker - one list for certificate and check expiry dates.
- police check - the plain-English definition to hand a new worker.
- onboarding agency staff in aged care - screening short-notice and agency workers.
- compliance requirements for Support at Home providers - the Department's own page for registered providers.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long is a police certificate valid for aged care work?
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing states the certificate must not be older than three years. The clock runs from the date of issue, so renewal should be diarised against that date and not the worker's start date.
Does an NDIS worker screening check replace a police check?
Yes. The Department states a worker who has an NDIS worker screening check does not need a police certificate, and the NDIS check also examines work misconduct history, which a police certificate does not.
Do board members and the CEO need worker screening?
Yes. Responsible persons, which the Department illustrates with a CEO and a Board member, need either a police certificate not older than three years or an NDIS worker screening check, on the same terms as frontline aged care workers.
Do volunteers need aged care worker screening?
Record a decision rather than an assumption. The Department groups volunteers with aged care workers and responsible persons when setting out conduct obligations, so a provider using volunteers in participant-facing roles should document their screening status.
When does the new NDIS-aligned screening process start?
No start date has been published. The Department has said that from 2026 it will introduce a new worker screening process aligning with the NDIS, and until a commencement date is published the current police certificate and NDIS check rules apply.
What must a worker tell their employer after screening?
A worker must immediately notify their employer if their circumstances change after their police certificate has been assessed, or if their NDIS worker screening check is suspended or cancelled. Both duties belong in the induction record.
Check the Certificate Before the First Shift
Aged care worker screening requirements are not hard to understand. They are easy to lose track of, because the obligation runs continuously and the evidence lives in dates rather than documents. A provider that can name the instrument, the issue date, the assessor and the outcome for every worker, responsible person and volunteer has met the requirement and can show it. This is general guidance, not legal advice.
