Who Is Actually Coming Into Your Home? Worker Screening, Explained
Letting someone into your home is an act of trust that most people never have to think about consciously.
For NDIS participants, it happens weekly, sometimes daily, often with someone new. So this article is about a question that sits underneath every single visit: who is this person, and who checked?
What an NDIS worker screening check actually is
An NDIS worker screening check is an assessment carried out by a state or territory worker screening unit. The unit assesses the worker and decides whether they are cleared or excluded from working with people with disability.
It is not a reference check, and it is not something a provider performs on itself. It is an independent decision made by a government screening unit, recorded in a national database, and it is valid for five years.
People in risk-assessed roles need a clearance. That includes workers delivering direct support, people supervising them, and key personnel in the organisation.
The part that matters most when choosing a provider
Here is the line we would like every participant and family in Sydney to know:
Workers employed by a registered NDIS provider will already hold a current worker screening clearance.
That is a condition of operating as a registered provider, not a courtesy.
If you are self-managed or plan-managed, you are allowed to use unregistered providers, and you are allowed to employ workers directly. That flexibility is genuinely valuable, and for many people it is exactly the right choice. But it does shift something onto you: an unregistered provider has no legal requirement to ensure its workers hold a screening clearance.
The NDIS Commission is direct about your rights here. There is no rule requiring a worker to hold a clearance before supporting you if you are self-managed or plan-managed, but you have the right to only accept workers who do, and the Commission recommends exactly that for your safety, wellbeing and peace of mind.
You can require it. You can ask your provider to send only screened workers. You can decline a worker who does not hold a clearance. None of that is difficult, and none of it is rude.
Self-managed participants can also get access to the NDIS Worker Screening Database to check and monitor the clearance status of workers linked to them, and clearances can expire or change status, so periodic checking matters.
The Code of Conduct behind every visit
Screening decides who is allowed through the door. The NDIS Code of Conduct governs how they behave once they are inside, and it applies broadly: to registered and unregistered providers delivering NDIS-funded supports, to key personnel, and to all workers, whether full time, part time, casual or contracted.
The Code requires people delivering NDIS supports to act with respect for your rights to free expression, self-determination and decision-making. To respect your privacy. To deliver supports safely and competently, with care and skill. To act with integrity, honesty and transparency. To promptly raise and act on concerns about quality and safety. And to take all reasonable steps to prevent and respond to violence, exploitation, neglect and abuse of people with disability.
Read that list again slowly, because it is not a list of aspirations. It is the minimum expected conduct, and the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission is an independent regulator that handles complaints about the quality and safety of NDIS supports.
If something is wrong, you can complain to the Commission. You do not need your provider's permission, and you do not need to justify it to them first.
How we handle this at Freedom Quality Care
As a registered provider, our workers in risk-assessed roles hold current NDIS worker screening clearances. That is the baseline, and we treat it as exactly that.
Above the baseline sits the thing participants actually feel. Consistency. The same faces, arriving when they said they would, knowing your routine, understanding your household, your culture, your language, the way decisions get made in your family.
A screening clearance tells you someone is not a risk. It does not tell you they are the right person to walk into your mother's kitchen on a Tuesday morning. Getting that part right is our job, and it is the part we care most about.
A short, practical checklist
Whoever supports you, these are fair questions to ask, of us or anyone else:
Are your workers screened, and is that verified before they start? Who do I contact if I am uncomfortable with a worker? Will I see the same workers consistently? What happens if a worker cannot make a shift? How do I raise a concern, and what happens after I do?
A good provider answers all five without hesitation, and without making you feel difficult for asking.
If you are in Sydney and want support from a registered provider where those answers are clear and the faces stay consistent, we would be glad to talk. Bring your questions, bring your family, bring your language.
Warmly,
Ruby Akron, COO
▸ Phone: +61 450 449 362
▸ Email: [email protected]
▸ Website: https://freedomqualitycare.com.au/
Freedom Quality Care is an NDIS registered service provider based in Western Sydney. This article is for general information purposes only and is based on official Australian Government and NDIS sources current as of May 2026. For advice specific to your plan, please speak with your planner, Local Area Coordinator, or support coordinator.
