Credentialing 101: What Every Aged Care Provider Should Check Before a Worker Starts

• Resume and contactable references, so we can speak directly to people who’ve worked with the candidate before 

• A National Police Check, current within the timeframe required under the Aged Care Rules 2025 

• A signed statutory declaration 

• Current flu vaccination, to protect a client group where infection carries real risk 

• 100 points of identification, confirming the person is who they say they are 

• Qualification certificates, verified directly with the issuing body, not just sighted 

• Evidence of work rights 

• A signed letter of engagement 

• An NDIS Worker Screening Check, where the role involves supporting NDIS-funded clients 

• A Working with Children Check, in the specific circumstances where a client is a minor 

It’s easy to see a checklist like this as bureaucracy. It isn’t. A National Police Check screens out anyone with a history that should preclude them from unsupervised access to vulnerable people. Reference checks catch the things a resume can’t show, how someone actually behaved in a previous role, under real pressure. A statutory declaration puts legal weight behind a candidate’s own account of their history. Flu vaccination protects a client group for whom a common illness can become serious very quickly. And verified qualifications confirm someone genuinely has the clinical skill they’re claiming, not just the paperwork that says so. 

A lot of providers will glance at a qualification certificate and move on. We verify every certificate directly with the issuing body before someone starts. It’s a small operational difference that closes a real gap: a sighted document can be fabricated or altered; a verified one can’t be. Given that the person holding that certificate may be responsible for medication administration or wound care, this isn’t a step worth skipping. 

Credentialing isn’t just about the checks that pass cleanly, it’s also about having a clear process for the ones that don’t. If a National Police Check returns a relevant offence, or a reference raises a genuine concern, the process stops there. Our recruitment team, drawing on genuine health sciences backgrounds and years of aged care experience, treats any red flag seriously, precisely because the people being sent into a client’s home are being trusted with their safety and dignity. A clean process on paper means nothing if flagged results aren’t taken seriously in practice. 

From 1 November 2025, new worker screening obligations under the Aged Care Act 2024 and Aged Care Rules 2025 apply to all aged care workers, including subcontractors and associated providers, not just an organisation’s own direct employees. A nationally consistent Aged Care Worker Screening Check, aligned to the existing NDIS screening model, is being progressively introduced through 2026. Until it’s fully rolled out, providers rely on current police certificates and NDIS Worker Screening Clearances, exactly the checks outlined above. 

Clearing the credentialing checklist isn’t the finish line, it’s the entry point. From there, candidates move into a structured interview assessing character and temperament, then into onboarding, matching, and a formal settling-in period before a client relationship even begins. Credentials are then reviewed again on a fixed renewal cycle for as long as someone remains employed. 

For where the legal line actually sits, and where we go beyond it, read Background Checks Explained: What’s Legally Required vs What Should Be Best Practice. And for what this looks like once someone has cleared credentialing and moves into onboarding, see From Application to Approval: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Our Nursing Onboarding Process. 

 

Want to talk it through?  

Call our team on 1300 602 469 for a free, no-obligation conversation, or read the full pillar guide: Can You Trust Who Walks Through Your Door? A Family’s Guide to Aged Care Worker Vetting