Nursing home police checks to start as early as 1 January 09

The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, says that police checks for all nursing home staff could start as early as 1 January 2009, as soon as legislation now before Parliament, is passed.
 
On 21 February 2008, she announced that police checks would be extended to all staff, regardless of whether they have supervised or unsupervised access to residents.

This would affect staff of accredited aged care facilities, and those delivering community care packages; for example, Extended Aged Care at Home (EACH) and EACH Dementia.

A police check for aged care staff will be a national requirement obtained from State/Territory Police, the Australian Federal Police, or through direct application to CrimTrac, the agency which is used by all police jurisdictions to obtain information on an individual’s criminal history.

Since February, there has been extensive consultation. The Aged Care Consultative Committee, aged care associations and providers, peak bodies, unions and government departments, including the Australian Federal Police, have all been consulted.

During the consultation process, industry groups indicated to the Department of Health and Ageing that many providers already have all employees undergo police checks.