Children's Act Safety Checks in NZ: Children's Workers and Re-checks
If your organisation is funded by government to work with children in New Zealand, the Children's Act 2014 says you must safety check every children's worker before they start, and check them again within three years. The first check usually happens as part of hiring. The re-check is the one that slips, because nobody owns the date.
This post covers who has to safety check, who counts as a children's worker, what a safety check involves, the three-yearly re-check, the core worker rules (including the change on 24 October 2026), volunteers, records, and how to set WorkZerk up to track it.
Who has to safety check
Part 3 of the Children's Act 2014 applies to a "specified organisation" (section 24) that employs or engages a children's worker in a regulated service. That means:
- the State services, such as government departments
- any individual or organisation funded by a State service, wholly or partly, directly or indirectly, to provide regulated services
- local authorities, and anyone they fund to provide regulated services
- sponsors of charter schools under the Education and Training Act 2020
Regulated services are listed in Schedule 1 of the Act. Some examples:
| Area | Regulated services include |
|---|---|
| Welfare and support | Social and support services, childcare, mentoring and counselling, youth work, out-of-school care and recreation |
| Health | Public hospitals, publicly funded medical practices, Well Child Tamariki Ora, disability support, ambulance, maternity |
| Education | Registered schools, early childhood services, playgroups, hostels, school camps |
| Transport | Driving a vehicle used only to carry children, such as a school bus |
| Local authority | Libraries, pools, sports centres, learn-to-swim programmes, surf patrols |
Oranga Tamariki lists who is not covered: businesses and community organisations with no government funding, privately employed nannies and babysitters, and parents or caregivers who receive funding to pay for services for their own child.
Self-employed people count too. If a sole trader provides a regulated service under a contract with a funded organisation, that organisation is responsible for making sure the check is done.
Who counts as a children's worker
Under section 23, a children's worker is someone who works in or provides a regulated service, where the work may or does involve regular or overnight contact with children, without a parent or guardian present. A child is anyone under 18.
Contact is "regular" if it happens at least once a week, or on at least 4 days a month. Overnight contact counts on its own. Contact means physical contact, talking in person or by phone, or communicating electronically, including text and images. Merely incidental contact does not count.
"Work" means paid work, or unpaid work done as part of an educational or vocational training course. Student teachers, nurses and social workers on placement are children's workers.
Core and non-core workers
Every children's worker is either core or non-core.
| Type | Definition (section 23) | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Core worker | Is, or may be, the only children's worker present, or has primary responsibility for or authority over the children present | A teacher, a youth worker who runs sessions alone, a school bus driver |
| Non-core worker | Any other children's worker | A teacher aide who always works alongside a teacher |
The safety check has the same elements for both. The difference is in the risk assessment, which must consider which role the person will hold, and in the ban on employing core workers with certain convictions.
What a safety check involves
The elements are set by section 31 of the Act and the Children's (Requirements for Safety Checks of Children's Workers) Regulations 2015.
| Element | What the regulations require |
|---|---|
| Identity | The person produces the originals of one primary and one secondary identity document, or uses an electronic identity credential (RealMe verified identity). If neither document has a photo, an identity referee authenticates a photo or signs a statement. A name change needs a supporting document. You then search your own personnel records to make sure no one else has used that identity. |
| Police vet | You get a vet from the New Zealand Police Vetting Service |
| Work history | A chronological summary of the last 5 years, including previous roles |
| Professional registration | The name of any relevant professional body, licensing or registration authority. You ask at least one of them for relevant information. Confirmation of current membership or registration is enough. |
| Referees | At least one referee who is not a relative. You must contact at least one. |
| Interview | Face to face, by phone or by video |
| Risk assessment | You assess whether the person poses a risk to children, and how much, given whether they will be core or non-core, taking into account everything above |
Primary documents include a New Zealand or overseas passport, a full New Zealand birth certificate issued on or after 1 January 1998, and a citizenship certificate. Secondary documents include a New Zealand driver licence, a Kiwi Access card, a utility bill under 6 months old and an Inland Revenue number. The full list is in the Schedule to the regulations.
You do not need a new Police vet if your organisation got one for the person in the last 3 years, or if they belong to a professional body or hold a registration whose authority must vet them at least every 3 years (regulation 6(2)). The rest of the check still applies.
The check must be complete before the person starts. You can use a screening service to do some or all of it, but your organisation stays responsible.
Police vets
Only approved agencies can ask for a Police vet, and the person must sign the NZ Police Vet Request and Consent Form. The Police Vetting Service says that, as at 6 November 2026, it is processing most requests in 34 working days and cannot currently meet its 20-working-day service level. Plan for that in your hiring and your re-checks.
Fees are $8.50 plus GST per request. Agencies making 20 requests or fewer a year are exempt, and registered charities can apply for a waiver. For the vetting process itself, see Police vetting and criminal record checks in New Zealand.
The three-yearly re-check
Section 27 says every children's worker must be safety checked again within 3 years of their latest check. This is the date to track. Failing to do it is an offence, with a fine of up to $10,000, the same as for missing the first check. Taking all reasonable steps to get the check done is a defence (section 29).
The re-check is lighter than the first check (Part 2 of the regulations):
- the person confirms whether their name has changed since the last check, with a supporting document if it has
- a new Police vet, unless one of the regulation 6(2) exceptions applies
- confirmation from any relevant professional body or registration authority
- a new risk assessment
No new work history, referee or interview is required. With Police taking more than 30 working days, start each re-check at least two months before the date.
Core workers with specified convictions
Section 28 bans a specified organisation from employing or engaging someone as a core worker if they have been convicted of a specified offence (listed in Schedule 2, mainly serious sexual and violent offences), unless they hold an exemption. The Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004 does not hide these convictions in a core worker safety check (section 31(3)).
From 24 October 2026, the Responding to Abuse in Care Legislation Amendment Act 2025 extended the ban to convictions overseas for offences that would be specified offences in New Zealand. For people already working as core workers, the wider rule applies from 24 April 2027. A person you treat as having an overseas specified conviction can ask a key agency to review that decision (sections 28A to 28D).
If you believe a current core worker falls under section 28, you must suspend them from core duties for at least 5 working days, keep paying them as you would for a suspension for serious misconduct, tell them why and let them respond. If you still believe it at the end, you must end their employment as a core worker. Breaching section 28 carries a fine of up to $50,000.
Core worker exemptions. A person with a specified conviction can apply to the chief executive of a key agency for an exemption (sections 35 to 38). It is granted only if the chief executive is satisfied they would not pose an undue risk to children as a core worker, and it can carry conditions or be revoked. Applications are made by statutory declaration. A declined or revoked exemption can be appealed to the High Court.
Volunteers
Volunteers are not covered, unless the volunteering is unpaid work done as part of an educational or vocational training course. You can still choose to check them. The Ministry of Education tells schools that volunteers do not need to be Police vetted by law, but to strongly consider it for volunteers with regular, overnight or one-to-one contact with children.
Child protection policies
Part 2 of the Act requires the prescribed State services, Health New Zealand and school boards to have a written child protection policy, publish it, and review it within 3 years. They must also require it in their contracts and funding arrangements with providers of children's services. So if you are funded to work with children, your contract will usually require a policy too. It must cover identifying and reporting child abuse and neglect. Oranga Tamariki has guidance on child protection policies.
Records
Keep a record of each check: how you confirmed identity, the vet result and date, who you contacted, your risk assessment and the date the check was completed. A key agency can require you to show how you have safety checked your workers, and in serious cases the full details for a named person, including how their identity was confirmed (section 39). Keep personal information no longer than you need it (privacy principle 9).
Rules change, so this is general information, not legal advice. Check with your funder or the agency that regulates your sector.
What WorkZerk does and doesn't do
- Each person sends their identity documents, signed Police vetting consent form, work history and referee details from a private link, with no account or password.
- Uploads marked Sensitive are stored encrypted, only admins can open them, and every view is recorded.
- WorkZerk tracks each person's re-check date and emails them before it arrives, asking for a new signed consent form.
- The Document compliance report shows whose safety check is current, due soon or overdue.
What it does not do: WorkZerk does not request Police vets, act as an approved agency, verify identity documents or RealMe identities, call referees, interview anyone or do the risk assessment. Your team does those, and records the result in WorkZerk. A photo of a passport uploaded to WorkZerk is not the identity check: the regulations need the originals, or a RealMe verified identity.
Setting it up in WorkZerk
1. Turn on two-factor authentication
Asking people to upload documents needs two-factor authentication on your account. Set it up first under Account, then Two-factor authentication (opens in WorkZerk in a new tab).
2. Create the fields
The Staff onboarding (New Zealand) pack has an optional Police vetting consent form upload, but its field has no expiry date to track the re-check, and neither New Zealand pack covers the rest of the safety check. Add your own fields. Open Fields (opens in WorkZerk in a new tab) and add:
- Children's Act safety check, an Upload field. Switch on Require an expiry date and Sensitive, and switch off Use AI to check expiry date. It holds the signed Police vetting consent form, and its expiry date is the re-check due date: 3 years after the check is completed.
- Proof of identity, an Upload field, marked Sensitive. Leave Require an expiry date off.
- Children's worker type, a Choice field with two options: Core worker, Non-core worker. Your team fills it in.
- Safety check completed on, a Date field your team fills in after the risk assessment.
See custom contact fields and keeping sensitive information private.
3. Ask for it on a portal
Open Portals (opens in WorkZerk in a new tab), click New portal, and add the Staff onboarding (New Zealand) pack, or the contractor pack for sole traders you engage. See starter request packs, the new employee onboarding checklist for New Zealand and the contractor onboarding checklist for New Zealand.
On the portal's Requests panel, click + Insert and add:
- An Upload request, "Proof of identity", with Proof of identity as its Document type. Set Min files to 2. In the description: "A photo of one primary document (such as your passport) and one secondary document (such as your driver licence). Bring the originals to your interview."
- An Upload request, "Police vetting consent form", with Children's Act safety check as its Document type and Require expiry on. Use Attach a document, link or YouTube video to link the Police form. In the description: "Fill in and sign the form, then upload it. For the expiry date, enter the date 3 years from today. We'll correct it when your check is complete."
- An Upload request, "Your work history", for a CV or list covering the last 5 years.
- A Text request, "Referee", asking for the name, phone number and how they know the person, and noting that it can't be a relative.
- A Text request, "Professional registration", for any relevant registration body and number, such as a teaching or nursing registration.
If you added the staff pack, delete its own Police vetting consent form request, which the second request above replaces, so nobody uploads the form twice. The pack already asks for Proof of your right to work. For that check, see right to work in New Zealand.
4. Add your people
Add people to the portal and send each one their private link. For a group of placement students, turn on the portal's self-registration link and share that instead.
Leave the portal open for as long as they work for you. Closing a portal switches off its links, and the re-check reminders stop with them.
5. Run the check, then approve
Uploads wait under Needs review on Requests (opens in WorkZerk in a new tab). For each person:
- See their original identity documents, or their RealMe verified identity, and search your records for the same identity.
- Submit the Police vet with their signed consent form.
- Call a referee, confirm their registration, and interview them.
- Do the risk assessment and record it in your own HR file.
- Approve their uploads. On the consent form, click Change date and enter the date 3 years after the check is completed.
- On their contact record, set Children's worker type and Safety check completed on.
See reviewing uploads.
6. Switch on the reminders
Open Automations (opens in WorkZerk in a new tab) and switch on Document expiring reminder and Document expired reminder. Both start switched off. The expiring reminder goes 30 days before the date by default. Change it to 90 days, so the new Police vet is back before the 3 years run out.
To remind your team too, build a Document expiring automation with Send account email. See automations.
7. Record each re-check
When the reminder goes, the person uploads a new signed consent form on the same row. The new file replaces the old one. Ask them whether their name has changed, run the new vet, confirm their registration and redo the risk assessment. Then approve the form, set the expiry date to 3 years after the re-check, and update Safety check completed on.
8. Check who is covered
Open Requests (opens in WorkZerk in a new tab) and click Document compliance. Each person shows as current, expiring, needs review, expired or missing for their safety check. Tick Only people who aren't compliant for the list to work through, and use Download CSV when your funder or a key agency asks for a register. See document compliance.
Getting started
Start a free WorkZerk trial at workzerk.com, then work through the steps above. If you get stuck, the getting started guide walks through a first portal end to end, or email us at [email protected].