Rationale:
All students have the right to be in a safe physical and emotional environment. In accordance with the Education Act 1989, the School is responsible for taking all reasonable steps to ensure that employees and contractors are free of relevant, previous criminal convictions.

The Vulnerable Children Act 2014 (VCA) introduced safety checks as one of the measures to help reduce the risk of harm to children. Safety checks must be completed for all people employed or engaged in work that involves regular or overnight contact with children.

• Employee - a person of any age employed by an employer to do any work for hire or reward
• Engaged – someone other than an employee who is engaged to do any work for gain or reward – e.g. a contractor

Purpose:
To provide a safe environment for students, and comply with the School’s legal obligations.

Guidelines:
• All teaching staff will be currently registered teachers and will therefore have been police vetted through the Teachers Council.

Any non-teaching staff member or volunteer (including parent helpers) who work during normal school hours will have safety checks performed, including being police vetted.

• Any contractor or employee of a contractor who has, or is likely to have, unsupervised access to students at the School during normal school hours will have safety checks performed, including being  police vetted.
• Any tutor who works unsupervised with students at the School during normal school hours will have safety checks performed, including being police vetted.
• A safety check will be obtained before any person who is required to be vetted has, or is likely to have, unsupervised access to students.
• On-call, incidental workers in the school will be monitored.
• The Principal, as the School’s Privacy Officer, has the authority to request and receive safety check information, including a police vet. Upon receipt of the results of a police vet, the Principal will make a recommendation to the Board. If a vet is not satisfactory, the Board Chairperson will be involved in the decision-making process.
• All safety checks will be repeated every three years unless the person concerned is no longer in a role that is required to be vetted.

• Results of safety checks will be treated on a strictly confidential basis and access to this information will generally be restricted to the Principal and the person concerned.
• Any information pertaining to a safety check will be stored securely and retained only for as long as it is required. A record of the date of the safety check having taken place will be kept.

Approved on behalf of, and with authority of the Board on:                           May 29, 2016

Principal: ___________________________                  Chairperson: ___________________________

The following procedures will be followed in order to ensure compliance with the school's Safety Check and Police Vetting Policy -

Identity confirmation

In order to confirm the identification of any potential employee, the following forms of ID are required to be sighted  by the principal-

1. One primary form of identification, for example:
   1. NZ or overseas passport
   2. NZ full birth certificate that is issued on or after 1 Jan 1998 with a unique ID number
2. A secondary form of official identification, for example:
   1. NZ drivers licence
   2. Community Services Card
   3. IRD number
3. One of the forms of identification must include a photo
4. Electronic identification, for example RealMe, may also be used

If the name of the person differs from the name on the documentation they provide, e.g. marriage or deed poll, they will need to produce a supporting document that shows evidence of the name change.

If it is identified that a name has been used by another person please contact NZSTA for further advice. 

Information about previous criminal convictions (if any) - Police vet

The Education Act 1989 has always required the Police vetting of all staff, with the Education Council completing the Police vet for teachers. The principal is required to complete these for all other staff, contractors and volunteers.

Other Information (potential employees)

To undertake a comprehensive risk assessment as part of a safety check the principal is alos required to need to obtain the following information;

• A chronological summary of the applicant’s work history for the preceding 5 years including the position they held in the organisation

• Any professional organisations they are a member of if it is relevant to the role e.g. a school counsellor may belong to the NZ Association of Counsellors.
• Any licence relevant to the activity e.g. drivers or bus licence if driving is part of their role
• Any registration authority that has issued a registration or practising certificate e.g. teacher registration
• Any other information that the principal considers to be relevant in the assessment of the person, e.g. where possible qualifications should be verified. The Education Council should have checked the first qualification issued to a teacher as part of their checks e.g. an undergraduate degree but may not have a record of any subsequent qualifications e.g. Masters

The principal must interview any applicant the school wishes to employ or engage.  During the interview the following must be considered -

• would the person pose a risk to children and if so, to what extent?
• what is their attitude to child safety?

Reference Checks (potential employees)

Reference checking allows you to find out if there are any gaps or differences from what the candidate has told you.  The candidate must provide at least 1 but preferably 3 referees who are not related to the applicant. One of the referees must be from an organisation or authority they have worked for or belong to. It is recommended that reference contact details include a landline or work number if possible as it is harder to verify who is on the end of a cell phone. One of their referees should be their immediate past employer or if possible their current employer. If they are reluctant to provide their current employer, check the reasons why.

The NZSTA application form allows the school  to contact referees other than those specified.

Risk assessment

Once you have gathered all the information from the identify verification, Police vet, and any other information, the principal must undertake a risk assessment to ascertain if there would be any risk to the safety of children if they were to be employed.

If they have a schedule 2 specified offence you cannot employ them unless they have an exemption. It is the responsibility of the person with the offence to apply for the exemption.

Periodic safety checks

Periodic checks must be completed on anyone who is employed or engaged at the school within 3 years of their last safety check.

As part of this check they must;

• confirm whether he or she has changed their name since the last safety check
• complete a Police check for any non-teaching employees
• obtain the names of any professional organisation, licensing authority or registration authority they belong to and check with these organisations or authority that the person is currently registered with them. E.g. verify with the Education Council that teachers have a current practising certificate.

The principal must then complete a risk assessment to ensure that this person continues to not pose a risk to the safety of children.

In order to ensure safety re-checks are completed within an appropriate time frame, a list of personnel must be held and must show the date due for safety check renewal.  At the end of each term the principal shall review anyone due for a re-check (or an initial check) in the coming term and provide them with new police vetting forms as well as reviewing the need for any further safety check details.