20 January 2023
PACFA membership applicants will need to provide a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (formerly ‘National Police Check’), in line with community expectations and other national health service provider standards.
In coming months, PACFA will ask existing members to provide a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check certificate. Members are also asked – but not required – to provide a Working With Children Check if they work with children and adolescents. We will communicate to members directly by email about how to provide the certificate(s).
Requiring members to provide a criminal history check certificate as a condition of membership is part of PACFA’s function as a self-regulating body for the counselling and psychotherapy profession.
PACFA has adopted the same criminal history registration standard as the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check certificates do not have a validity end date – once provided, PACFA will keep these on record. The platform PACFA uses for our membership database and website, iMIS EMS, has been certified under the International Organisation for Standardisation’s (ISO) global standards for information security management systems. ASI, the company that manages iMIS, believes that iMIS is the only platform of its kind to have achieved this benchmark, representing the highest standard for information security.
To submit a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check certificate application, contact an ACIC-accredited body or an Australian police agency. For more information, visit the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission website.