Safety Checking Staff – New requirements
Safety checking and workforce restriction
New safety checking requirements are being phased in from
1 July 2015. The new requirements include
- a standard safety check, and
- a workforce restriction.
Regulations
New Regulations under the Act set out the minimum standards for safety checking. Click HERE to download two forms that can guide you through the safety checking requirements. The first time around, you need to use the full safety check form. Thereafter, you can use the periodic safety checking form.
When you need to start safety checking
The safety checking requirements are being phased in over the next few years. The first phase starts
from 1 July 2015.
Who needs to be safety checked
The Vulnerable Children Act specifies who needs to be safety checked. You can read this in section 23 of the Vulnerable Children Act.
ECE sector organisations must safety check all people they employ or engage as a children’s worker according to the timeframes specified above. This includes contractors. The date from which safety checking must commence depends on whether the person is a ‘core worker’ or a ‘non-core worker’.
For ECE services and kohanga reo, all staff who have access to children would be considered a ‘core worker’, as there will be times during the day when their duties require them to have ‘primary responsibility for, or authority over’, children. For example, in an ECE centre a teacher would be considered a ‘core worker’; in a home-based service an educator would be considered a core-worker.
A ‘non-core worker’ would include staff whose main duties do not require them to have ‘primary responsibility for, or authority over’, children, but whose work may include having access to children. For example, non-teaching staff such as administrative or kitchen staff.
Workforce restriction
As part of the safety checking process, anyone convicted of a specified offence cannot be employed or engaged as a core worker, unless they have an exemption.
A specified offence means an offence identified in Schedule 2 of the Vulnerable Children Act 2014.
A person convicted of a specified offence can apply for an exemption. The exemptions process is administered by the Ministry of Social Development. Applications for exemptions are being considered from 1 July 2015.
Employers will be able to make an enquiry against the Core Worker Exemption register.
You can find more information about the workforce restriction and the exemptions process on the Children’s Action Plan (CAP) website.
How to safety check
A supporting document has been developed to provide advice to organisations interpreting and applying the safety checking Regulations. You can download this document, Children’s Worker Safety Checking under the Vulnerable Children Act 2014, from the Children’s Action Plan (CAP) website.
There are also best practice guidelines available to provide advice on selecting safe people to work with children. They include information about all aspects of the recruiting process. You can download these guidelines, Safer recruitment, Safer children, from the Children’s Action Plan (CAP) website. These guidelines have been developed for use in conjunction with the regulatory supporting document mentioned above.