Key takeaways
- The NDIS Worker Screening Check is a national assessment of whether someone poses a risk to people with disability.
- It is required for workers in risk assessed roles with registered providers, and lasts five years unless it is revoked earlier.
- It is not the same as a police check. It is broader and it is monitored continuously.
- You can verify a worker’s clearance yourself through the NDIS Commission worker screening database.
- If you self manage and directly employ workers, different rules apply and screening is not automatically required.
Table of Contents
- What the NDIS Worker Screening Check Actually Is
- Worker Screening vs a Police Check
- Who Needs an NDIS Worker Screening Check
- What Counts as a Risk Assessed Role
- How a Worker Applies
- How the Check Works in NSW
- How to Check a Worker’s Clearance Yourself
- The Six Statuses and What Each One Means
- Clearance, Exclusion and What They Mean
- A Worked Example: Checking a Worker You Employ Directly
- If You Self Manage or Directly Employ Workers
- What You Are Entitled to Insist On
- Questions Worth Asking Your Provider
- How SADC Can Help
- Frequently Asked Questions
What the NDIS Worker Screening Check Actually Is
The NDIS Worker Screening Check assesses whether a person poses an unacceptable risk of harm to people with disability. It is a national scheme, so a clearance issued in one state or territory is recognised across Australia.
The assessment is carried out by the worker screening unit in the applicant’s state or territory, and the outcome is recorded in a national database overseen by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
A clearance lasts five years. It can be revoked at any point during that period if new information changes the assessment.
Worker Screening vs a Police Check
This distinction matters, and providers sometimes blur it.
| NDIS Worker Screening Check | Standard police check | |
|---|---|---|
| What it looks at | Criminal history plus other relevant records and findings | Disclosable criminal history only |
| Focus | Risk to people with disability specifically | General |
| Ongoing monitoring | Yes, continuous while the clearance is valid | No, it is a snapshot on the day |
| Recognised nationally | Yes | Varies |
| Duration | Five years unless revoked | No expiry, but goes stale immediately |
| Can be revoked | Yes | Not applicable |
The continuous monitoring is the important part. A police check tells you about the day it was issued. A worker screening clearance is actively reviewed if something relevant arises.
Who Needs an NDIS Worker Screening Check
Registered NDIS providers must ensure that workers in risk assessed roles hold a clearance. That covers most direct support roles, and also some management and governance positions.
Unregistered providers are not bound by the same requirement, though many choose to screen their workers anyway. If you are plan managed or self managed and using unregistered providers, it is reasonable to ask what screening they do.
What Counts as a Risk Assessed Role
Broadly, a role is risk assessed if it involves more than incidental contact with people with disability, or if it is a key personnel role in the organisation.
- Support workers providing personal care or daily living support
- Support coordinators working directly with participants
- Workers providing supports in a participant’s home
- Therapists and allied health professionals delivering NDIS supports
- Directors and key personnel of registered providers
Roles with no participant contact, such as a purely back office finance position, are generally not risk assessed.
How a Worker Applies
Applications go through the worker screening unit in the worker’s own state or territory, not through the NDIS Commission directly. In New South Wales that is the Office of the Children’s Guardian.
The worker applies, pays the fee where one applies, provides identity documents, and nominates their employer so the provider can verify the outcome. Processing times vary, and workers cannot start in a risk assessed role until the clearance is confirmed, unless a specific supervision arrangement applies.
How the Check Works in NSW
The screening check is national in effect but run state by state. In New South Wales it is called the NDIS Worker Check and it is administered by the Office of the Children’s Guardian, not by the NDIS Commission and not by the police.
What a worker actually does:
- Lodge the application online through their MyServiceNSW account.
- Attend a Service NSW centre within 28 days. They bring their application number, their identity documents and payment. Miss the four week window and the application lapses.
- The Office of the Children’s Guardian reviews the application and begins the assessment.
- The employer verifies the application. Employers have 30 days to do this. An unverified application does not proceed.
The fee in NSW is $112 for paid workers. It is free for volunteers.
On timing, the Office of the Children’s Guardian does not publish a processing time and says it cannot give applicants a time frame for completing an assessment. That matters practically: if you are recruiting a worker who does not already hold a clearance, you cannot plan a start date around the check.
A clearance is valid for five years, and it is portable. A worker cleared in NSW can work for a provider in another state without applying again.
How to Check a Worker’s Clearance Yourself
You do not have to take a provider’s word for it. The NDIS Commission maintains a worker screening database that lets you check whether a person holds a current clearance.
You will generally need the worker’s NDIS worker screening clearance number and their name. Ask the provider for it. A provider that will not give you a clearance number for someone working in your home is worth questioning.
The NDIS Commission can be contacted on 1800 035 544 if you have concerns about a worker or a provider.
The Six Statuses and What Each One Means
When you look a worker up, you do not get a yes or a no. You get one of six statuses, and the middle ones are the ones people misread.
| Status | What it means | Can they support you? |
|---|---|---|
| Clearance | The worker holds a current clearance. | Yes |
| Pending | They have applied and no decision has been made. | Depends on the role and who employs them. Not a clearance. |
| Interim bar | They have applied, and must not work with people with disability while the decision is pending. | No |
| Exclusion | They must not work in specified roles with people with disability. | No |
| Suspension | Their clearance is being reassessed and they must not work with people with disability meanwhile. | No |
| No valid clearance | They do not hold a clearance. | Not screened |
Pending is the one that causes trouble. It is not a soft yes. It means the assessment has not finished, and it can still end in an exclusion. If a provider tells you a worker is “in the system”, ask which of the six words applies.
A clearance can also change after it is granted. It can expire, or move to excluded or suspended if something comes up during the five years. This is why a check at hiring is not the same as ongoing checking.
Clearance, Exclusion and What They Mean
Clearance. The person may work in risk assessed roles for five years, subject to ongoing monitoring.
Exclusion. The person is assessed as posing an unacceptable risk and cannot work in a risk assessed role anywhere in Australia. Exclusions are recorded nationally.
Interim bar. A temporary restriction applied while an assessment is underway, where the screening unit considers there is an immediate risk.
If a clearance is revoked while a worker is supporting you, the provider must remove them from that role.
A Worked Example: Checking a Worker You Employ Directly
If you are self managed or plan managed and you hire a worker yourself, nobody else is doing this for you. Here is the actual sequence.
Step 1: Get access to the database
The NDIS Worker Screening Database is the national register of everyone who has applied for or holds a check. To use it you apply for access to the self-managed participants portal through the NDIS Commission. The last step of the application sends you an email with a link to finalise access, so watch for it and use it before it expires.
Step 2: Link the worker to you
You cannot look up a stranger. The worker has to be linked to you as an employee first, and you can only link someone who has already applied for a check. To link them you need their surname and either their Worker Screening ID or their Application ID. Ask them for it directly.
Step 3: Read the status
Once linked, the worker appears on your My Workers page with one of the six statuses above. Check it before the first shift, not after.
Step 4: If they have not applied yet
You give them your Participant Worker Screening ID number, which you can find or generate in the portal, and they enter it as their employer on their application. Once they have applied, you verify that you intend to employ them.
One caution the NDIS Commission makes explicitly: workers pay for their own check, so only ask someone to apply and hand over your ID if you genuinely intend to employ them. In NSW that is $112 out of their pocket.
Step 5: Keep checking
While a worker is linked to you, the portal notifies you when their check is coming up for expiry. Clearances can also be suspended or revoked inside the five years, so a periodic look at the My Workers page is the whole ongoing obligation. It takes a minute.
The full instructions are in the NDIS Commission worker screening guidance for participants.
If You Self Manage or Directly Employ Workers
Self managed participants who directly engage their own workers are not required to obtain worker screening checks for them. That is a real difference in the level of oversight, and it is worth understanding rather than discovering later.
Many self managed participants still ask for a screening clearance or at minimum a current police check, references from previous disability work, and proof of relevant qualifications. Nothing stops you setting your own standard.
What You Are Entitled to Insist On
The rules here are less absolute than most people assume, and the gap between what is required and what you can ask for is where families get caught out.
What is required. Workers in risk assessed roles for a registered provider must hold a clearance. If you use a registered provider, the workers coming into your home already have one. That is the provider’s legal obligation, not a favour.
What is not required. If you are self managed or plan managed, you can use unregistered providers, and unregistered providers have no legal requirement to make their workers get a clearance. You can also employ an unscreened worker directly if you choose to.
What you can insist on anyway. The NDIS Commission is direct about this: there is no rule that a worker must hold a clearance before supporting you, but you have the right to only accept workers who have a current one, and the Commission recommends you do. That applies to workers you employ yourself and to workers sent by an unregistered provider.
In practice that means two sentences you are entitled to say, and should:
- To an unregistered provider: “Please only send workers who hold a current NDIS worker screening clearance.”
- To a worker you are hiring directly: “I need your Worker Screening ID so I can link you and check your status before you start.”
Neither is an unusual request and neither is rude. A provider who treats it as either has answered the question for you.
Questions Worth Asking Your Provider
- Do all workers who come to my home hold a current NDIS worker screening clearance?
- Can you give me the clearance number for the workers supporting me?
- What happens if a worker’s clearance is revoked?
- How do you handle new workers while their clearance is being processed?
- What other checks do you run, and what training do workers complete?
These are ordinary questions and any good provider will answer them without hesitation.
How SADC Can Help
SADC Disability Services is happy to confirm the screening status of any worker supporting you, and to explain how we handle screening, training and supervision. If you are comparing providers, ask each of them the questions above and compare the answers.
We support participants across Sydney with daily living supports, community participation, support coordination and respite.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is an NDIS Worker Screening Check?
It is a national assessment of whether a person poses an unacceptable risk of harm to people with disability. It is carried out by state and territory screening units and recorded in a national database.
2. How long does an NDIS worker screening clearance last?
Five years, unless it is revoked earlier. Clearances are continuously monitored during that period.
3. Is a worker screening check the same as a police check?
No. Worker screening looks at a broader set of records, focuses specifically on risk to people with disability, is monitored continuously, and can be revoked. A police check is a one off snapshot.
4. Can I check whether a support worker has a clearance?
Yes. The NDIS Commission maintains a worker screening database. Ask your provider for the worker’s clearance number so you can verify it.
5. Do all NDIS workers need a screening check?
Workers in risk assessed roles with registered providers do. Unregistered providers are not held to the same requirement, and self managed participants who directly employ workers are not required to obtain one.
6. What do I do if I am worried about a worker?
Raise it with the provider first. If it is serious or not resolved, contact the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission on 1800 035 544.
Official sources
- NDIS Commission, Worker screening for participants
- NDIS Commission, NDIS Code of Conduct
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, Participant Pack
Related guides
- NDIS Support Worker Qualifications and Training Explained
- NDIS Service Agreements: What to Check Before You Sign
- How to Switch NDIS Providers Without Losing Support
- Plan Manager vs Support Coordinator: What’s the Difference?
- NDIS Price Guide 2026: What Providers Can Actually Charge
- NDIS Support Coordination Meeting Checklist
Contact Us
If you have questions about worker screening, or you want to know what checks the people supporting you have completed, contact SADC Disability Services. We are happy to answer these questions for anyone, whether or not you are a participant with us.