Police Checking of Educators & Nannies

Due to changes in Government Policy (You can read the specific changes Here) effective from the 20/5/2010, HGK have been forced to implement changes to our Police Checking System. These changes are going to cause a delay in the time it takes a new Educator or Nanny to become qualified to provide Home-Based Care through HGK, and potentially a delay in enrolling new Families.

Previously:

We reference check all potential Nannies & Educators, and also send off the candidate's details to the NZ Police Vetting Service, who then send us a report detailing their past criminal history, including any family violence and abuse at the address provided. We are required to do this under previous and current legislation so that no person who has been convicted of a crime against children is in a position to provide care.

This check can take anything from 3 weeks to 3 months to be completed, depending on how busy the Police Vetting Service are, and not something we have any control over.

To assist in getting Educators working faster, and so that Families didn't have to wait, we introduced a document called a Pre-Police Check. This was basically a statement from an individual that they had no criminal convictions, or any pending, and we would accept their word. Of course we still send off the Police Check, but it meant that Educators and Nannies could start faster. In nearly 5 years of using this system we have never had a Police Check come back where an Educator had lied to us about their convictions which would have prevented us from accepting them.

Currently:

With the law change by the Ministry, we are no longer allowed to use this Pre-Check system, and must wait until the Police Check arrives back. This will mean a delay in processing all Educator and some Nanny applications, and ultimately a delay for new Families. All childcare services are in the same boat with this one. Any service that tells you that the check isn't needed, or use a Pre-Checking system, are acting illegally.

And it gets worse. HGK has also had many Aupairs through it's books over the years, but with this legislation change we will probably no longer be able to place them. This is because by the time it takes to get the checks back, many Aupairs Visa's have expired, or are close enough to expiring that we can't place them for any usable length of time.

While we understand that the Ministry has rules, in this case the legislation change is unhelpful at best.
If you feel you wish to have your say, please contact the Ministry of Education directly!