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Police Checks and Working with Children Checks

Police Check
Working with Children Check

Police Check

Police checks are required for all researches, except teachers with current registration with the Victorian Institute of Teaching, who are directly involved in:

• Collecting data from minors who are unaccompanied by a parent, guardian, carer or teacher; or
• Collecting data from vulnerable research participants, e.g. individuals with a reduced capacity to provide fully informed consent.

A police check is undertaken to determine whether an individual has any prior convictions. Once a police check has been conducted a National Police Certificate will be issued by Victoria Police providing the outcome of the police check.

The Consent to Check and Release National Police Record can be found at the Victoria Police website.

Completing the form

• Please see page 2 of the form for instructions on how to complete it.
• Section 2 - The researcher/applicant will need to check the box "National Name Check" in this section.
• Section 3 - The researcher/applicant will need to check the first box "Employment, voluntary work or occupation related licensing".
• In the box entitled "type", please specify that it is "research" you are engaging in.
• Postal address - The individual requesting the police check, should fill in the address to which they want the National Police Certificate sent, noting that it should not be sent to the Deakin University Human Ethics Office.

Application fee

A fee applies for the issue of a National Police Certificate. Fees change annually in 1st July. For information on current fees, please contact the Public Enquiry Service on (03) 9247 5907 or go to http://www.police.vic.gov.au.

Researchers' responsibilities

1. Staff and student researchers are responsible for applying for their own police check.
2. It is the Principal Researcher/Supervisor's responsibility to ensure that all relevant researchers have undertaken a police check.
3. The Principal Researcher/Supervisor must inform the Human Ethics Office in writing that the police checks have been undertaken and that there are no concerns. This communication will be kept on file.
4. The National Police Certificate issued by Victoria Police will need to be retained by researchers.
5. It should be stated in the Plain Language Statement that a police check has been undertaken in accordance with requirements of the Deakin University Human Research Ethics Committee.

Further information

Additional information is available at the Victoria Police website.

Queries may be directed to Victoria Police at publicenquiryservice@police.vic.gov.au or to the Human Ethics Office.

What is the Working With Children (WWC) Check?

1. The WWC Check only applies to individuals who have regular direct contact with a child who is not accompanied by a parent, guardian, carer or teacher.
2. The Working With Children (WWC) Check is being phased in over the next five years.
3. The WWC Check is valid for five years and can be transferred between jobs and organisations.
4. A list of individuals/organisations requiring the WWC Check has been issued by the Department of Justice.

If research requires ongoing contact with child subjects, the researcher must seek advice from the Human Ethics Office first and may be required to seek additional advice from the Department of Justice.