Useful links and resources to help your organisation meet the Staffing accreditation standard
Staffing standard:
The organisation has the staffing capability and capacity to deliver services safely.
Please read the accreditation standards for your level carefully, including the guidance.
Employment New Zealand provide a range of information and resources to help you understand your rights and responsibilities as an employer.
Social services often work with or care for the most vulnerable people in our population. It is important that organisations in this sector ensure that staff are properly safety checked or vetted.
In the social services sector, understanding the criminal history (if any) of every worker who delivers services (as well as members of an organisation’s management and governance) has become the expected minimum for recruitment and regular checks from then on. There are two services in New Zealand that provide this information (with the consent of the individual), the NZ Police Vetting Service and the Ministry of Justice’s criminal record check.
The two services are slightly different, with a Ministry of Justice criminal record check only containing a person’s actual conviction history and the NZ Police Vetting Service possibly including other information held by New Zealand Police, in addition to convictions. The Social Sector Accreditation Standards require accredited organisations to carry out a criminal background check using the New Zealand Police vetting service or, if the position does not meet the criteria for NZ Police vetting, a Ministry of Justice criminal history check.
This information, along with other information required by the appropriate standards should be used to determine whether a person is suitable for the role. The key purpose is to identify whether a person poses a risk to others, including children. If concerns are identified, organisations should take a risk-based approach and show that they have considered these results, including the development of a management plan where appropriate.
Criminal record check - Ministry of Justice
A detailed safety check is required for all children’s workers. This is a requirement of the Children’s Act 2014 (the Act), which aims to reduce the risk of harm to children by requiring certain employing or engaging organisations to have child protection policies and to safety check their children’s workers.
A “children’s worker” is defined in the Act. It means: a person who works in, or provides, a government funded and regulated service, and the person’s work may or does involve regular or overnight contact with a child or children and the work takes place without a parent or guardian of the child being present. In this context, a child is a person under the age of 18 years. Work is that which is either paid or unpaid work undertaken as part of educational or vocational training.
A “core children’s worker” is a person who is the only children’s worker present or has primary responsibility for, or authority over, the child or children present. A “non-core children’s worker” simply means a children’s worker who is not a core worker.
Employing or engaging organisations are responsible for ensuring that staff who meet the definition of a children’s worker are safety checked before they begin working as a children’s worker, and every three years from then on (while they remain in a children’s worker role).
The Children’s Act 2014 and the Children’s (Requirements for Safety Checks of Children’s Workers) Regulations 2015 describe what is required in a safety check.
All initial safety checks must include at a minimum:
A safety check completed by a person’s previous employer cannot be used to meet these requirements – each employing or engaging organisation must conduct their own safety checks.
The periodic safety checks to be completed every three years after a person has been employed or engaged do not require all the items included in the recruitment safety check to be redone. Safety checks from then on must include at a minimum:
Employing or engaging organisations should ensure any documents associated with the safety check are kept on file so they can confirm that safety checking has been completed. These documents must also be kept secure as required by the Privacy Act 2020.
Safety checking (and general vetting) does present challenges in some situations, for example, where a legal entity is a single individual delivering services or the person that would usually safety check staff is a children’s worker themselves.
In these situations, if the person can be defined as a children’s worker in the Children’s Act 2014, a safety check must be completed.
This may require a third-party screening service to complete the safety check, so there is no conflict of interest for the people involved in the checking process. More guidance can be found in the table below.
For sole traders/organisations that are connected to a larger organisation, for example through a franchise, there may be other options for the safety check (or general vetting) to be completed.
The Act prohibits people who have been convicted of a specified offence from being employed or engaged as a core children’s worker, unless they have been granted a core worker exemption. The offences that require an exemption are listed in Schedule 2 of the Act. Applications for a Core Worker Exemption are processed by Te Kāhui Kāhu.
A core children’s worker is a person who is the only children’s worker present or has primary responsibility for, or authority over, the child or children present. Examples of a core children’s worker may be doctors, teachers, nurses, paediatricians, youth workers, victim support workers, social workers, mentors, OSCAR workers, child transport workers and community support workers. A non-core worker simply means a children’s worker who is not a core worker.
Core Worker Exemptions - Te Kāhui Kāhu
If your organisation does not employ staff, you may be exempt from meeting some of the staffing standard criteria. If your organisation does decide to take on staff in the future, you will need to notify Te Kāhui Kāhu before beginning the process.
This table contains high level information about the components of a safety check. For children’s workers, these components must be completed before a worker is employed or engaged and every three years from then on. The employing or engaging organisation needs to complete these steps or they may choose to engage a third-party screening service to conduct some components. The information contained in this table should not be considered legal advice.
Safety Check Steps |
What |
How |
Who does this? |
|
1. Confirmation of identity |
Either electronic identity credential/Real Me or one original primary identity document and one secondary identity document |
Original documents must be sighted and copies should be held on file. The copies should be annotated with the date and name of person who sighted them |
Proof of identity (originals gathered, copied and sighted) is completed by the employing or engaging organisation |
|
2. Chronological work history for the last 5 years |
A chronological summary of the person’s work history for the preceding 5 years, including a description of previous positions |
Checks are made to verify work history on the CV or stated by the person applying
|
The person’s work history (normally on a CV) is reviewed by the employing or engaging organisation |
|
3. An interview |
Interview the person applying to obtain the information needed to conduct a risk assessment |
Face to face, by telephone or other technology, and documented. |
The interview is led and documented by the employing or engaging organisation |
|
4. Professional registration/ licensing (where applicable) |
If the person applying is a member of a professional/registration/licensing organisation, they must provide the name of:
|
Checks made using publicly available registers |
Professional registration or licensing memberships (as claimed) are checked by the employing or engaging organisation against all available public registers |
|
5. NZ Police vetting result |
Completed Police Vet Request and Consent Form and supporting evidence, including the Result received from the NZ Police Vetting Service |
Online (New Zealand Police – Vetting) Register for New Zealand Police Vetting | New Zealand Police |
The employing or engaging organisation manages vetting applications (as the ‘approved vetting Agency’).
|
|
6. A reference check |
The person applying must provide two referees (the Act requires one, but the Accreditation standards require two) to the employing or engaging organisation. Referees are usually past employers or person/s who can testify to work behaviour or character.
|
Work history is verified by the employing or engaging organisation with the referee contacts provided (face to face, by telephone or other technology, and documented). |
Referee checks are carried out by the employing or engaging organisation.
|
|
7. A risk assessment |
Assess a person to determine whether they pose any risk to the safety of children as a children’s worker and if they do (or would) pose a risk, the extent of that risk. |
A final evaluation of the information gathered by steps 1-6 is made to determine whether the person poses any risk to the safety of children working in a children’s worker role. The decision of the employing or engaging organisation to offer employment/ engagement (or not) should be documented. |
The final risk assessment must be carried out by representatives of the employing or engaging organisation who have delegated authority to make employment/engagement decisions. |
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