NDIS worker screening records: what a provider must keep

An NDIS provider keeps two written records for worker screening: one listing the risk-assessed roles in the organisation, and one for each worker engaged in those roles. The worker record carries the person's details, their NDIS Worker Screening Check numbers and clearance expiry date, and is kept for seven years (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026).

In short

• A provider keeps a written record of its risk-assessed roles, and a separate up-to-date record of each worker in one.
• The role record names and describes the role, quotes the paragraph of the definition it meets, and dates the assessment.
• The worker record holds identity details, roles done, check numbers, clearance expiry, and any bar, suspension, allegation or action taken.
• A worker screening clearance is valid for five years. The role record is updated within 20 business days of a change.
• The worker record is kept for seven years and has to survive the worker being unlinked in the portal.

What records must an NDIS provider keep for worker screening checks?

A registered NDIS provider keeps two written records: one of the risk-assessed roles in the organisation, and one of each worker engaged in a risk-assessed role. Both are the provider's own records, not a copy of a screen in a government portal.

The role record is the one most often missing. For each role it has to include:

• the title for the role
• the paragraph or paragraphs of the definition of risk-assessed role in the Worker Screening Rules that the role meets
• a description of the role
• the date the role was assessed as being a risk-assessed role
• the name and title of the person who made the assessment

That list is not written once. It is updated within 20 business days when a new risk-assessed role is identified, or when an existing role is reclassified as one (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026).

The worker record is separate, and up to date, for each person in a risk-assessed role. Some of what it holds also appears against the worker in the registered providers portal, but the portal is not the record. The record has to be in a format that still exists after a worker is unlinked in the portal, is kept for seven years, and is organised, accessible and legible.

What is the NDIS Worker Screening Check?

The NDIS Worker Screening Check is the check a worker applies for through their state or territory worker screening unit. Its outcome is held in the NDIS Worker Screening Database, which carries worker screening information for all states and territories.

A provider does not run the check. It identifies the roles, points workers to the right screening unit, and reads the result. Access to the database depends on where the organisation is up to. A registered provider reaches it through the registered providers portal. An organisation that has not yet applied for registration applies for access through the applications portal as an unregistered provider. One that has applied and is waiting on a decision asks the NDIS Commission for interim access, with its ABN and application reference number.

Checking a worker's status is then a matter of reading three fields, once the worker is linked to the organisation. A current clearance shows a worker's status of 'Clearance', an expiry date in the future, and an 'Eligible to work' status of 'Yes' (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026).

When a worker applies, they declare where they will work, either by searching for the organisation in the application form or by using the employer ID number the provider gives them. The provider then verifies in the portal that it intends to have that person working for it.

Which roles count as risk-assessed roles

A risk-assessed role is one involved in the direct delivery of specified supports or services to a person with disability and likely to require more than incidental contact with people with disability, or a key personnel role. People in risk-assessed roles can be staff members, volunteers, or students on work experience or placement.

More than incidental contact covers physically touching a person with disability, building a rapport with them as an integral and ordinary part of normal duties, or having contact with multiple people with disability as part of the direct delivery of a specialist disability support or in a specialist disability accommodation setting. Contact can be physical, face to face, oral, written or electronic.

Key personnel are the significant roles: those responsible for executive decisions, or holding authority or significant influence over planning, directing or controlling the provider's activities. That takes in the chief executive, directors listed in ASIC, executive staff, managers and board members. A sole trader or self-employed registered provider is both key personnel and in a risk-assessed role, so they need a clearance themselves.

The NDIS Commission's own worked examples are worth reading before deciding a role is out of scope. A back-office accountant who nods hello in the lobby is not in a risk-assessed role. A worker who delivers mobility equipment to people's homes, adjusts it and trains them to use it is, because the contact involves openness, trust and rapport. The judgement is about the nature of the contact, not the job title, and that judgement is what the role record captures.

What the worker record has to hold

For every worker in a risk-assessed role, the written record holds identity details, the roles they do, and the history of anything affecting their suitability. The required details are:

• full name
• date of birth
• address
• the risk-assessed role or roles they do
• records relating to any interim bar, suspension or exclusion
• any action taken by the provider that relates to the worker
• allegations of misconduct against the worker, and the action the provider took in response

For a worker who holds a clearance, four more details are added: the NDIS Worker Screening Check application reference number, the check number, the worker screening clearance expiry date, and whether the clearance is subject to any interim bar, suspension or revocation, or any other decision. For a worker relying on an exception to work without a clearance, the record also states the reason.

Two of those lines do more work than the rest. Allegations of misconduct and action taken are what make this a safeguarding record rather than a staffing list, and they sit alongside records a provider already keeps. Our post on what NDIS providers must record and report for restrictive practices covers that side of the paperwork.

Keeping both records current

A provider keeps both records current by checking a short list of dates and statuses on a set cycle. Audit time is too late to start.

The usual four checks are a screening clearance expiry inside the next few months, a worker in a risk-assessed role whose status is not 'Clearance', a worker not linked in the portal at all, and a role created or changed in the last 20 business days that has not reached the role record.

Notifications help with the first of those. When a worker is linked to the provider in the registered providers portal, the provider is notified when their worker screening check is expiring soon, and those notifications sit in the portal inbox. A notification is a prompt, not a register. The seven-year record stays the provider's own.

The practical step for a leadership team is deciding who owns each record, when it is reviewed, and where that review is written down. MERIT Lumina is built for that kind of question: it can connect to the exports a provider already has and show the measures its leaders check each week. There is more on our NDIS page, and our FAQ answers the common questions about how data is loaded.

Common questions

Who needs a worker screening check under the NDIS?

People in risk-assessed roles, including key personnel, need an NDIS worker screening clearance. That covers staff, volunteers and students on placement whose role involves direct delivery of supports with more than incidental contact, as well as executives, ASIC-listed directors, managers and board members (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026).

How long does an NDIS worker screening clearance last?

An NDIS worker screening check is valid for five years. The expiry date is one of the details the provider records for each cleared worker, and the registered providers portal notifies a provider when a linked worker's check is expiring soon (NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026).

Can a worker start work before their screening check clears?

In some circumstances a worker may be appropriately supervised and able to work in a risk-assessed role without a clearance, and one of those is a person waiting for the outcome of their application. The others named by the NDIS Commission are secondary school students on formal work experience, higher education students on placement, and contractors whose clearance is verified and administered by another organisation. If a worker is relying on an exception, the record has to say why.

What happens if a worker's screening clearance is revoked or expires?

The provider's record has to show it, through the lines on any interim bar, suspension, exclusion or revocation and the action the provider took. In the portal, a worker whose status is no longer 'Clearance', or whose 'Eligible to work' status is not 'Yes', cannot be treated as screened. The NDIS Commission publishes separate guidance on renewing a check.

Do unregistered NDIS providers also need worker screening checks?

Worker screening applies differently to unregistered providers, and the NDIS Commission keeps its guidance for unregistered provider worker screening on a page of its own. The detail in this article, including the seven-year record and the 20 business day update, is the requirement set out for registered providers. An unregistered provider should read the Commission's own page for its position.

Sources

• Worker screening for registered providers, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026
• Worker screening, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026
• Worker screening for unregistered providers, NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, as at October 2026