Worker screening & credential tracker.

The NDIS Worker Screening Check is a national check of whether a person poses a risk to people with disability. Each state and territory runs its own worker screening unit that takes applications and makes decisions, but the outcome is recorded in the national NDIS Worker Screening Database (NWSD), run by the NDIS Commission, and is recognised everywhere in Australia.

Clearance

A decision that the person is cleared to work with people with disability in a risk-assessed role. Valid for 5 years.

Exclusion

A decision that the person must not work in a risk-assessed role.

Interim bar

A decision made while an application is being assessed that stops the person working in a risk-assessed role until it is decided.

Suspension

A temporary stop on an existing clearance while new information is assessed.

Worker screening ID

The worker's national reference number, which stays the same across employers, states and renewals.

Registered providers must assess every role in the organisation, including contractors and agency staff, and identify which are risk-assessed roles (Rules s 11). Only workers with a clearance can work in them. A role is risk-assessed if it is:

1. a key personnel role — people responsible for executive decisions, or with authority or responsibility for planning, directing or controlling the provider's activities, typically directors and senior managers;
2. a role whose normal duties include direct delivery of specified supports or services to a person with disability, from the Commission's published list; or
3. a role whose normal duties are likely to need more than incidental contact with a person with disability.

“Contact” includes physical, face-to-face, oral, written and electronic communication. The Rules say contact is likely to be more than incidental where duties involve physically touching a person with disability, building rapport with them as an ordinary part of the job, or contact with multiple people with disability in specialist supports or specialist disability accommodation. A back-office accountant who nods hello to clients in reception is the Rules' own example of incidental contact.

Part 3 of the Rules sets out the records. They are a condition of registration under section 73Q of the NDIS Act, and auditors ask for them.

The list must be kept so an auditor can tell which workers were in risk-assessed roles on any given day in the previous seven years (s 20). A spreadsheet that is overwritten each month doesn't meet that test. Keep start and end dates, and export snapshots — the tracker above exports a CSV for that reason.

For agency staff and contractors (“personnel”), you must tell the agency which risk-assessed roles they will fill, have an appropriate contract with the agency, take reasonable steps to confirm each person has a clearance, and keep copies of the contract and related records (ss 13, 19).

Sometimes. The exception in section 14 of the Rules has strict conditions, and it doesn't apply at all in jurisdictions whose law prohibits working while an application is pending (“no card, no start”).

A person is not “in the process of obtaining a clearance” if they have been excluded before, had a clearance revoked, withdrawn their application, are under an interim bar, or are not being supervised as required (s 15(2)).

The first national clearances were issued in February 2021, so the first five-year expiries arrived from February 2026. Every year from now on, a large group of workers will need to renew. A clearance that lapses means the worker can't be rostered into a risk-assessed role, so the deadline is operational, not just administrative.

Lodge early. In the Northern Territory, for example, a worker can keep working while a renewal is assessed only if it was lodged in the NT, paid for in full and verified by the employer before the old clearance expired. Other jurisdictions set their own rules — check your state's screening unit.

A complete compliance register goes beyond screening. The NDIS Practice Standards require providers to keep records of each worker's pre-employment checks, qualifications and experience, and evidence that every worker has completed the mandatory NDIS worker orientation program.

If workers implement behaviour support plans, also record their training in each plan — the restrictive practice timeline checker covers the plan side.

These scenarios are fictional and de-identified.

1. A renewal over the Christmas break

A support worker's clearance expires on Saturday 20 March 2027. The renewal window opens on 20 December 2026, the week offices start closing for the holidays. The provider flags the worker in early December, the worker lodges in the first week of January, and the coordinator verifies it the same day.

2. The rostering coordinator

A coordinator never meets participants but phones several of them each week to arrange shifts and check how they're going. Building rapport by phone is an ordinary part of the job, so the role is likely to need more than incidental contact. The provider assesses it as risk-assessed and records which limb applies and why.

3. An agency worker on a weekend shift

A provider books an agency worker for a SIL weekend. Before the shift it confirms the contract with the agency covers worker screening, tells the agency the shift is a risk-assessed role, checks the worker's clearance, and keeps a record of the check.

4. A suspension notice

A linked worker's clearance is suspended. The provider takes them off risk-assessed shifts immediately, keeps a copy of the notice and records what it did, reviews its risk management plan if a reportable incident is involved, and considers whether to notify the Commission under the reportable incident checker.

• Only screening frontline staff. Key personnel roles are always risk-assessed, including directors who never meet participants.
• Not linking workers in the NWSD. Without the link, you won't see status changes or expiry notifications.
• Overwriting the register. Auditors must be able to see who was in a risk-assessed role on any day in the past seven years.
• Treating pending as cleared. A worker waiting on an outcome can only start under the strict exception, and not at all in no card, no start jurisdictions.
• Forgetting agency staff and contractors. Personnel need the same clearance, plus a contract and records.
• Missing the 20-business-day update. New or reclassified roles must be added to your list promptly.
• Leaving renewals to the worker. Renewals need your verification; a lapsed clearance becomes your rostering problem.

• The first renewal cycle. Clearances issued in February 2021 began reaching their five-year expiry in February 2026.
• Mandatory registration for SIL and digital platforms. From 1 July 2026, providers of assistance with supported independent living and NDIS digital platform services must be registered, bringing their workers under the worker screening requirements. Existing unregistered providers had until 1 October 2026 to apply and can continue while their application is decided.
• Higher penalties. Since 9 April 2026, the civil penalty for breaching a condition of registration — including the screening and record-keeping requirements — is up to 250 penalty units, or up to 10,000 penalty units for a serious contravention.
• The Rules themselves were last amended with effect from 31 July 2021, with no changes since as at 4 October 2026.

Screening is one part of the human resource management outcome auditors test. Rate yourself against it in the Practice Standards self-assessment.