Safety Checking and Police Vetting
The Children's Act 2014 introduced safety checks as one of the measures to help reduce the risk of harm to children.
What is safety checking?
Safety checking is the process of gathering information from a job candidate, their former employers, the New Zealand Police, professional organisations, and your own interviews to undertake a risk assessment as part of a robust recruitment process.
This risk assessment ensures that the school is satisfied that the applicant would not pose a risk to the safety and wellbeing of children if employed or engaged.
When must safety checking be completed?
All of the required steps of safety checking must be completed before any offer of employment is made.
Safety checking must be completed for all people employed or engaged in work that may involve regular or overnight contact with children (without the supervision of a parent), on appointment and every three years following.
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An employee is a person of any age employed by the school board to do any work for hire or reward.
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Someone other than an employee who is engaged in doing any work for gain or reward – e.g. a contractor – is considered to be someone who is engaged by the board.
Note: Some people who may not be required to be safety checked in accordance with the Children’s Act because they do not meet the above definitions may still need to be police vetted separately to the safety checking process – see Schedule 4open_in_new of the Education and Training Act 2020.
What is the safety checking process?
The safety-checking process involves the following components:
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Confirming the identity of an applicant, and
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Receiving a satisfactory police vet, and
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Obtaining information on past work history, qualifications, and professional membership, and
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Interviewing and asking questions about child safety and wellbeing, and
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Reference checking to verify the candidate's answers on past work history, qualifications, professional membership and child safety, and
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An overall risk assessment.
How can you confirm someone’s identity?
There have been cases in schools where people have gained employment using someone else's identification and qualifications.
Without verifying identity, any other information you gather cannot be relied on.
You need to sight originals, or verified copies, of:
One primary form of identification, for example:
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NZ or overseas passport
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NZ full birth certificate that is issued on or after 1 Jan 1998 with a unique ID number
A secondary form of official identification, for example:
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NZ driver's licence
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Community Services Card
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IRD number
One of the forms of identification must include a photo.
You can also use electronic identification, such as RealMe.
If the person's name differs from the name on the documentation they provided, the applicant will need to produce a supporting document that shows evidence of the name change (e.g. marriage certificate or deed poll).
If it is identified that someone's name is being used by someone else, please contact the Advisory and Support Centre for further advice.
How do you get information about previous convictions (police vetting)?
Police vetting is a legal requirement in both Schedule 4 of the Education and Training Act 2020 and Clause 6 of the Children's (Requirements for Safety Checks of Children's Workers) Regulations 2015.
A police vet report will identify any criminal convictions that could prevent someone from working at your school.
The information gathered from the police vet will be used as part of the overall risk assessment you will undertake in the safety checking process.
The Teaching Council undertakes police vetting for teachers when they apply for their practising certificate (including for overseas jurisdictions).
If they have a valid and current practising certificate, you do not need to undertake a second police vet.
For all other staff employed or engaged by the board, you will need to request a police vet from the New Zealand Police.
Additionally, if a person has lived overseas, you should obtain police certificates from any country that person lived in for 12 months or more within the last ten years. Please refer to page 30 of the Ministry of Education's Children's Act 2014 Guideopen_in_new before undertaking a police vet for someone who has lived overseas.
New Zealand Police advise that you allow up to 20 working days for a police vet to be processed and returned to you. This may be longer for overseas jurisdictions.
Therefore, we recommend requesting a police vet for all candidates as soon as they have been shortlisted.
Police vetting is different to obtaining a Ministry of Justice security clearance.
Further information about registration, the process and how to access the vetting service can be found on the New Zealand Police websiteopen_in_new.
What if a candidate has convictions and/or schedule 2 offences?
If a candidate has a conviction (other than a schedule 2 conviction, see below) and you are unsure whether it impacts their suitability for employment at the school, contact the Advisory and Support Centre so we can assist with the next step of your decision making.
You cannot employ a person who has been convicted of a Schedule 2 specified offenceopen_in_new.
The only exception to this rule is if the candidate has been granted an exemption.
It is the responsibility of the person with the offence to apply for the exemptionopen_in_new. The process for checking exemptions is detailed by Oranga Tamarikiopen_in_new.
Note that if a candidate has received an exemption, the school still needs to undertake a full safety check and risk assessment to determine the suitability of the person to work in a school.
Work history and professional membership checks
To ensure the overall risk assessment relies on comprehensive, objective information, you will need to identify if there is anything in a candidate's previous work history that gives reason for concern.
By law, you need to obtain:
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A chronological summary of the applicant's work history for the preceding five years, including the position that they held in an organisation.
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Information on membership of any professional organisations they are a member of, if it is relevant to the role (for example, a school counsellor may belong to the NZ Association of Counsellors).
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Information on any licence held that is relevant to the role (such as driver's licences and endorsements if driving is part of their role).
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Information on any registration or practising certificate that a registration authority has issued to the candidate (such as teacher registration).
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Any other information that is considered relevant in the person's assessment (such as the candidate's trade qualifications or qualifications obtained after registration as a teacher).
Interviews
You must interview any applicant whom you may wish to employ or engage.
This should be done face to face (either in person or over a video conference software like Zoom or Microsoft Teams).
During the interview, you must consider:
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Would the person pose a risk to children, and if so, to what extent?
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What is their attitude to child safety?
To help you with this, you should include questions to find out about:
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The applicant and their qualifications,
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Their view on child discipline and keeping children safe, and
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Their attitudes and experiences when working with children.
Pages 27 and 28 of the Ministry of Education's Children's Act 2014 Guideopen_in_new provide examples of appropriate questions that can be used.
You can read our article on interviewing to learn more about the procedure when conducting interviews.
Reference checking – who?
Reference checking allows you to find out if there are any gaps or differences in the information the candidate has provided to you.
You can download and use our reference checking matrixopen_in_new to assist. Make sure to get the applicant’s consent before contacting their referees, and let them know when you are going to make contact.
The employer should contact three referees.
One is the minimum required by the Children's Act 2014; however, checking three references before deciding to appoint is strongly recommended.
One of the referees must be their current employer (direct supervisor) or most recent direct supervisor (if not currently employed).
None of the referees can be related to the candidate.
If you wish to speak to referees beyond the ones provided by the candidate to seek further information or clarification about any issues or concerns that are raised, you will need permission from the candidate.
This allows them to provide additional information to you or opt out of the application process if they so wish.
Reference checking – how?
Written references should not be relied on.
Call (preferably to a registered landline or work cell phone) or video call so you can observe any hesitations or pauses.
If someone says they cannot provide information or comment on something, that could be a red flag.
Referees should be able to answer questions about the applicant's suitability to work with children and their fitness for the role based on key knowledge, skills, attributes and how they demonstrated these in previous roles.
If a candidate is honest about an issue with a current employer, check the reference and see if that seems accurate to what the applicant had described.
Prepare your questions ahead of time and use the same questions for each applicant.
It is preferable that the same person conducts all the reference checks to ensure consistency of information across all applicants.
Reference checks should remain confidential unless the referee has agreed to share information with the applicant.
Reference checking with professional organisations
At a minimum, you should obtain confirmation from the organisation that the candidate is currently a member of the organisation and/or currently licensed or registered by the appropriate authority.
What is an overall risk assessment?
Before any offer of employment is made, the board or delegated authority must undertake an overall risk assessment to ascertain if there would be any risk to the safety of children if the candidate were to be employed. This assessment is based on the information gained from identity verification, police vets (including overseas jurisdictions), reference checks, interviews and any other information that may be relevant to the assessment.
Ultimately, you must be satisfied that the applicant would not pose a risk to the safety of children if employed or engaged.
The Ministry of Education's Children's Act 2014 Guideopen_in_new, on page 31, provides useful guidance for this assessment, such as:
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Use your professional judgement to identify [any] patterns of concerning attitudes or behaviours, as these patterns can be subtle and wider than the presence (or absence) of relevant criminal convictions.
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Consider indicators in context, as information about a criminal conviction, gaps in employment history, or a negative reference can paint different pictures.
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Follow up on potential indicators … ask for evidence.
If you do not have concerns and the candidate is assessed as the best person for the role, you can proceed with the appointment.
What if concerns are raised from the risk assessment?
Having concerns does not automatically mean you have to discount an applicant (unless the candidate has a Schedule 2 offence), but you need to take additional steps before making a decision to ensure you meet your obligations under the Children's Act.
Remember, all allegations must be treated with extreme caution, and the safety of children should be the primary consideration.
Sometimes, it may be difficult or impossible for a candidate to reply to historical allegations against them, especially when firm evidence is lacking, or they have never heard the information previously.
To be as fair as possible to the candidate, you should consider other sources of information that can help you reach an overall decision about their suitability for the role.
Contact our Advisory and Support Centre so we can assist with the next step of your decision-making.
Periodic safety checking
Periodic safety checks must be completed on anyone who is employed or engaged at the school within three years of their last safety check.
As part of this check, they must confirm whether they have changed their name since the last safety check.
The school is also required to:
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Obtain the names of any professional organisation they belong to or any authority that has licensed or registered them, and check with them that the person is currently registered with them (e.g., verify with the Teaching Council that teachers have a current practising certificate), and
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Complete a police check for any non-teaching employees, and
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Combine all of this information and complete a risk assessment to ensure that this person does not pose a risk to the safety of children.
If a periodic safety check raises issues, contact the Advisory and Support Centre so we can assist with the next step of your decision-making.
Volunteers
While under the Children's Act 2014, there is no requirement to complete safety checks for volunteers, we strongly recommend and encourage schools that a Police vet is completed for all volunteers.
This is because volunteers often work unsupervised with children.
Safety checking undertaken by a third party
Generally, responsibility for safety checking is the school's alone.
In some situations, however, it may be appropriate for a third party (such as a contracting firm or a university that places trainee teachers) to undertake the safety checking of their employees/staff who will have regular or overnight contact with children (without parents being present) rather than the school itself.
In these situations:
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The third party needs to seek permission from the person being safety checked for the information to be shared with the school. This permission is best sought before the check is undertaken.
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The arrangement needs to be formalised in writing between the school and the third party to confirm the safety check was done on behalf of the school. The Ministry of Education recommends that this be a Memorandum of Understanding or a letter of intent that provides details and formal assurance that the third party has adequately undertaken safety checks that include all the aspects of the process required by law, as explained above.
Note: This assurance also needs to include whether the third party can assure you that their employees would not pose a risk to children if employed as a children's worker.
The ultimate legal responsibility for child safety remains with the school, even if a third party undertakes the safety check. Therefore, you must ensure you are satisfied with the assurance you are provided with by the third party.
If you choose to rely on a safety check completed on your behalf, you need to exercise due diligence, including:
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Completing a separate identity check (even if the third party has already completed this). This ensures the person checked is the same person on your site.
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Undertaking an overall risk assessment based on the information provided by the third party.
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Keeping records about the safety checking of all children’s workers you engage or employ.
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When in doubt, undertake a safety check yourself.
Questions a principal could ask
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Who do I need to vet?
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What is proof of identity?
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What is the overarching purpose of safety checking?
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What do I do if concerns are raised during my safety check?
Templates, resources, and references
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