Screening Checks

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:05): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Human Services.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: The screening process delivered by the Department of Human Services is particularly important for people seeking to work with children, people with a disability and in the aged-care sector. Minister, how many people are currently waiting to have their standard screening assessment completed? What is the average time it is taking for these standard assessments to be completed?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (15:06): I thank the honourable member for the question. As he has outlined, the screening processes are incredibly important. Can I advise that the number of screenings at present that have been held as at 7 May is some 274,357 individuals who hold child-related screenings. For disability services, it is 27,892. For vulnerable persons, it is 37,316 and, in the aged-care sector, it is 54,005. We now have a continuous monitoring process so that some 111 clearances have been revoked for 92 people since 1 July 2017.

In relation to the applications that are determined, we have a statistic where some 70 per cent are resolved in fewer than 10 business days. Quite a number, I think 90 per cent—I will need to double-check what that exact figure is—are resolved within 30 working days. So, that's reasonably quick.

The reasons, as the honourable member will be aware, that some people are held up is that there can be, broadly, three or four separate issues. So, the continuous monitoring is monitoring of the SAPOL database, the child protection database. Those reports are updated daily and provided to the screening unit. If somebody submits an application through that process and there is a flag on that, then that becomes a separate process which takes a lot longer for individual people to assess and go through. Some of those can take a considerably longer period of time because they need to be individually assessed and judgement needs to be made whether they are appropriate.

The other matter that comes into play in this space is that if people have accidentally put down a different name or if they have changed their name or there is some other detail, then they will not fall within those faster timetables and therefore that can actually delay it. I have just discovered here that actually 94 per cent are done within that time frame of 30 business days. There is an ongoing project in relation to clearing what is called a backlog. Additional staff have been allocated to that process and so those more detailed assessments are working through that process.

If anybody is in a situation where the screening is holding up their potential for work or if they have any concerns, then they can contact my office on 8463 6560 and we will make sure that they are fast-tracked because we certainly don't wish to have anybody missing out on employment opportunities because their screening hasn't been approved.