Criminal History

When you apply for registration, you agree to the Board checking your criminal history. You must also: 

• provide your NDIS worker screening identification number, if you have one; and 
• tell us about any criminal history you have in Australia or overseas. 

If you don’t have a current NDIS clearance, we request a national police check (also known as a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check) from the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). ACIC provides the result to the Commission and to you. 

If you have a criminal history overseas or have lived overseas for 12 months or more in the past 10 years as an adult, we may ask you to provide an international police check certificate for the countries you lived in. 

The Board may also request a report about an applicant or registered disability worker’s criminal history at any time.

A national police check (details your convictions for criminal offences, including where you were found guilty of an offence in Victoria, another state or territory, or under a Commonwealth law at the point in time it is requested. The national police check for disability worker registration also includes spent convictions. This is because the Commission has an exemption to receive spent conviction information as part of the registration and regulation of disability workers. 

When you apply for registration, Service Victoria request the check, and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Agency (ACIC) retrieve data from police databases from all Australian territories and states. When you apply for registration, you agree to undergoing this check and the results being provided to the Commission.

No, you do not need to pay for a police check when you apply for disability worker registration in Victoria. There is currently no fee to apply for disability worker registration. The Commission covers the cost of your national police check if you need one as part of your application.

No. Not all national police checks provide the information required by the Board. The Board also needs to check criminal history at the time an application for registration is made. 

When a disability worker applies for registration, Service Victoria requests the required check, and it is performed by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.

When you apply for registration, you need to tell us about every charge, plea of guilty or finding of guilt and every conviction for an offence in Australia and overseas, at any time in your life. This includes: 

• any offence you were charged with, even if the charges were dismissed, struck out or withdrawn 
• any offence you were charged with, where you were acquitted or found not guilty 
• any spent convictions 
• any guilty findings, even if they did not result in a conviction 
• matters yet to go to court (pending charges) 
• driving offences, such as drink driving, driving under the influence of drugs, or driving at excessive speeds. 

All this criminal history will appear on your national police check result. The Board will check your responses against the results of your national police check. 

You must also tell us about any criminal history from overseas.

Yes. You need to declare any offence that you were charged with, regardless of the outcome.

A spent conviction is a conviction that, generally, is protected from being shared. Spent convictions do not appear on your national police check, unless an exemption applies. 

The Board has an exemption to collect, use and disclose spent conviction information as it is an agency that registers and regulates disability workers. This means that a national police check completed as part of your application for disability worker registration will include any spent convictions. These are considered when assessing whether you are a suitable person to be registered as a disability worker. 

If you applied for registration using your NDIS clearance, any spent conviction information was disclosed to the worker screening unit as part of the NDIS worker screening check. 

You can read more information on spent convictions in Victoria on the Department of Justice and Community Safety website: https://www.justice.vic.gov.au/spent-convictions

You need to provide enough relevant information for us to assess your application. This includes: 

• the name of the offence/s and 
• the year you were charged, and 
• which state or country you were charged in. 

You will also be asked to provide a brief explanation of what happened, about the charges and the outcome/s. If you don’t have all this information, tell us the details that you do have.

If you have a criminal history, you may still be registered. 

The Board will assess your criminal history, consider whether it is relevant to practise as a disability worker and whether you are a suitable person to be a registered disability worker. 

The Board categorises criminal history using the same three risk categories (Categories A, B or C) as the NDIS worker screening check. The category of offences determines the risk assessment test the Board applies to decide whether you are suitable to be registered. 

The Board considers whether the charge, offence or conduct would be classified as NDIS Category A, B or C under the Worker Screening Act 2020.

For: 

• Category A offending committed as an adult – the Board will generally find the disability worker unsuitable and refuse to grant registration. 
• Category B offending – the Board will consider refusing the application because the disability worker is not suitable for registration unless there are exceptional circumstances that mean the application should not be refused. 
• Category C offending – the Board will consider granting registration unless the Board considers that the disability worker poses an unacceptable risk to harm to people with disability.

The Board assesses: 

• For Category B offending: whether there are exceptional circumstances that mean an application should not be refused 
• For Category C offending: whether a disability worker poses an unacceptable risk of harm to people with disability. 

The Board considers these factors when making the assessment: 

• the nature, gravity and circumstances of the offending or conduct 
• the period of time since the offence or charge 
• the vulnerability of the victim 
• the disability worker’s relationship to the victim 
• whether the disability worker had a position of authority in relation to the victim 
• the disability worker’s criminal, misconduct and disciplinary history, including whether there was a pattern of concerning behaviour 
• the disability worker’s behaviour since the offence or conduct 
• all other relevant circumstances about the offence, misconduct and other relevant history.

If you do not tell us about your criminal history, and your police check returns disclosable court outcomes, we will write to you to ask for more information about the nature and circumstances of the offending. 

The Board considers relevant criminal history and may decide you are not a suitable person to be registered, if: 

• you are not an appropriate person; and 
• it is not in the public interest for you to practice as a disability worker. 

The Board may propose to refuse your application or to grant registration subject to a condition. 

The Board will then consider all available information, including any submission you make, and decide your application.

Yes. When you are registered you must tell us within 7 days if: 

• you are charged with an offence punishable by 12 or more months in prison 
• you are convicted or found guilty of an offence punishable by a prison term in Australia or overseas. 

You can tell us this by contacting us at registration@vdwc.vic.gov.au.

When you apply to renew your registration, you will be asked to tell the Board about any changes in your criminal history in the past registration year.

The Board may take action against you if you do not declare your criminal history, or if you engage in criminal conduct while registered. The Board may: 

• counsel or caution you 
• accept an undertaking from you 
• suspend or impose a condition on your registration 
• accept surrender of your registration 
• cancel your registration, prohibiting you from providing disability services.

Most checks will be returned within 24 hours of lodging your application for registration, however they can sometimes take longer. If there is any delay, we will continue to consider your application while we wait for the check result.

If there is a criminal history, it can take weeks or months to obtain and consider all available information and conduct a thorough assessment. If there is a delay in deciding your registration, we will contact you to request more time to assess your application.

If you think some or all of the information released on your police check is incorrect, you can appeal or dispute this. You need to contact Service Victoria and follow the national police check dispute process. Find out more about the dispute process at http://service.vic.gov.au/find-services/crime-and-the-law/apply-for-a-national-police-check/disputes. 

Any disputes must be resolved through Service Victoria, the government agency that submits your check.

Yes. You may apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for review of that decision. You can find more information at Disability Service Safeguards Act 2018 | VCAT

The Commission and Board are committed to protecting the privacy of your personal information. We follow fair information handling practices and use of information in compliance with our obligations under the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic) and the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic). These are set out in the Commission and Board’s Privacy Policy and Disability Worker registration application collection notice.