Background

Victoria Police has agreed to grant an exemption from the new arrangements for National Criminal Record Checks to organisations providing home-based care (foster care, permanent care and adoption services) if they apply for the exemption through the Centre. The requests have to come through the Centre and the CSOs pay for Police Checks themselves and must have a named person (name, title, telephone number, postal and street address) for each organisation who will receive the Certificates from the Police and who will deal with the applications and payment for the Checks on behalf of that organisation.

At a meeting with Judith Hill, Assistant Manager, Business Management Department, Public Enquiry Service, Victoria Police, we confirmed the process that has to be followed by all the participating organisations that are included as part of the Centre’s overarching exemption. These are listed below.

Process

• Every organisation has to have a form filled out by the applicant authorising the organisation to open the letter (Certificate will be addressed to the applicant sent care of the organisation) for every application for a police check. It is illegal to open the letter without this authorisation.  Signed authorisation should be kept on file at your office for verifying the name on the envelope prior to opening.
  
• The Application Form has to be filled out on-line. Hard copies are available for use only when an applicant does not have access to a computer and/or a printer. Please note: if the online form is not correctly filled out, it will not print out.

Section C –  Postal Address Field - You must note the exact words – RETURN TO ORGANISATION in the first  line under the heading Unit number/street number/street name/PO Box with MELBOURNE as the suburb, Victoria as the State and 3005 as the postcode.

This alerts the Police that your organisation is part of the exemption. Failure to complete this section as outlined above will result in the certificate being returned to the applicant.

• All supporting identification documentation totalling100 points or more have to be certified by an authorised person as listed on page 3 of the application form and the accuracy of the information must be checked by the contact person in your organisation.  Original identification documents must be sighted by the authorised certifier and photocopies of these documents certified.
  
• Payment ($32.00 per person, cheques payable to Victoria Police) and the certified photocopies should then be attached to the application form and sent to; Public Enquiry Service, Victoria Police, PO Box 418 MELBOURNE VIC 8005.
  
• Once the application has been processed by the Police, the Certificate will be sent back to the organisation addressed to the individual applicant, care of the contact person in the organisation. This letter can only be opened legally (authority to receive) if the organisation has the signed agreement of the applicant on file.

Please note: Section D page 6 of the Application Form – Please record the name of the organisation’s contact person (should be the person with authority to open the letter), the organisation name and the address for return of Certificate. Failure to comply with this instruction may result in the Certificate being returned to the applicant. 

Volunteers

Your organisation will be eligible to pay a reduced fee of $14.50 per volunteer if you have applied and been accepted as the holder of a Community Volunteer Fee number. The whole section has to be filled out accurately, including the organisation’s details, the CVF number and the signature of the authorised CVF representive. The nature of the voluntary work to be undertaken by the volunteer must be shown on the application form (Section E option 2). The authorised person in the organisation will be responsible for completing the form and attaching the certified documents and the fee prior to sending them to Victoria Police.  The organisation’s authorised CVF representative may not necessarily be the same person authorised to receive the certificate under the Exemption Agreement.

Please address any queries to judith.hill@police.vic.gov.au.

Judith Newbold

Manager, Learning and Development

Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare