DHS Screening South Australia: Working with Children Check for Foster Carers

The DHS screening is the step that stops most SA foster care applications in their tracks — not because people fail it, but because they underestimate how long it takes and how comprehensive it is. Eight weeks is a realistic wait time. Some applications take longer. If you submit your screening application late in the process, it can add months to your overall timeline.

Understanding what the check actually involves, who in your household needs one, and how to keep the process moving is one of the most practical things you can do before you even attend an information session.

What is the DHS screening?

In South Australia, the Child-Related Employment Screening is managed by the Department of Human Services (DHS) Screening Unit. It is commonly referred to as the Working with Children Check (WWCC), and it is a legal requirement under the Children and Young People (Safety) Act 2017 for all authorised foster and kinship carers.

It is not a standard criminal record check. A basic police check reports your criminal history at a point in time. The DHS Child-Related Employment Screening is a comprehensive risk assessment that reviews:

• Your national criminal history
• Child protection records held by the Department for Child Protection (DCP) in South Australia
• Child protection information from interstate authorities and New Zealand
• Workplace misconduct information relevant to working with children

The Screening Unit weighs this information collectively and makes a determination about whether you pose an "unacceptable risk" to children. The presence of a criminal record does not automatically result in a refusal — the nature, timing, and context of any offences are all considered.

Who needs to be screened?

Every adult living in your household must hold a valid DHS Child-Related Employment Screening clearance. This includes your partner or spouse, adult children still living at home, and any other adults who are permanent or regular residents.

Beyond household members, the requirement extends to any person who regularly visits your home and may have unsupervised contact with a child in your care. This is one of the requirements that surprises prospective carers most — a parent or sibling who visits every weekend, for example, may also need to be screened.

Your agency will advise you specifically on who in your circumstances requires screening. In practice, the DCP takes a conservative approach — if there is any doubt, the person should be screened.

Cost and validity

For foster carers and volunteers, the DHS Child-Related Employment Screening is free of charge. This is explicitly stated in the SA fee schedule — you will not be charged regardless of how many household members require screening.

For comparison, the fee for employees in paid child-related work is $140, and for tertiary students it is $71.

The screening clearance is valid for five years from the date of issue. However, it is subject to continuous monitoring throughout that five-year period. If you or any member of your household is charged with a relevant offence after the clearance is issued, the DHS Screening Unit receives automatic notification and may revoke the clearance immediately — without waiting for the charge to be resolved in court.

This continuous monitoring is a source of ongoing anxiety for some carers, particularly those with past interactions with the justice system. The practical reality is that the monitoring focuses on child-related offences and serious matters. For the vast majority of carers it is a background administrative function they will never be aware of.

How to apply

Applications are submitted through the DHS website. You will need to verify your identity using the Document Verification Service (DVS), which checks your identity against government records using your Australian driver's licence, passport, or birth certificate. In most cases this can be done entirely online without attending in person.

Each adult in your household who requires screening submits a separate application. The application process asks for:

• Personal details and residential history
• Employment history in child-related roles (if any)
• Disclosure of any criminal history
• Your consent to the DHS accessing relevant government records

Once submitted, the Screening Unit processes applications in order of receipt. Processing times fluctuate but eight weeks is the commonly cited benchmark. Applications flagged for further review take longer.

The most common source of delay: submitting too late

The single most effective thing you can do to reduce your overall application timeline is to submit your DHS screening application at the very beginning of the process — ideally when you first contact an agency, not after you have attended training or completed several assessment sessions.

Because the screening and assessment processes can run concurrently, an early screening submission means you are not sitting at the end of your assessment process waiting for a clearance that could have been processing for months. Agencies routinely see applications delayed by six to eight weeks simply because the carer did not submit their screening paperwork early enough.

What if your application is taking longer than eight weeks?

If eight weeks have passed and you have not received an outcome, contact the DHS Screening Unit directly. You are entitled to ask for a status update. If there is a specific issue with your application — for example, a matter in your history that requires further consideration — the Unit should communicate this to you rather than leaving the application in limbo indefinitely.

Your agency's assessment worker can also assist with enquiries on your behalf. The NGOs that work within the SA system have established relationships with the DCP and DHS and can sometimes help identify where an application has stalled.

What you should not do is withdraw and resubmit a new application. This restarts the processing clock and can flag your application for additional scrutiny.

Does a criminal history mean automatic rejection?

No. The DHS screening is a risk assessment, not a pass/fail criminal record check. Factors weighed in the determination include:

• The nature of the offence
• How long ago it occurred
• Whether it involved children or vulnerable people
• The pattern of behaviour across your history (a single incident versus a pattern is treated differently)
• Evidence of rehabilitation or changed circumstances

A caution, a minor traffic offence, or an old charge that did not result in conviction is unlikely to be determinative. Offences involving children, sexual offences, or serious violence are treated as high-risk regardless of timing.

If you have anything in your history that you are uncertain about, raise it with your agency worker before you submit your screening application. They have seen a wide range of histories and can advise you on how the Screening Unit is likely to approach your specific situation. Self-disclosure and proactive honesty consistently result in better outcomes than information that emerges through the screening process itself.

After you receive your clearance

Your DHS screening clearance is linked to your authorisation as a foster carer. When you are formally authorised by the DCP, the clearance becomes part of your ongoing registration. At renewal (every five years) you will need to apply for a new clearance. If your clearance lapses while you are an active carer, your authorisation is suspended until the renewal is processed.

If you change agencies — moving from, say, AnglicareSA to Lutheran Care — your existing DHS clearance transfers with you. You do not need to re-screen. Your authorisation record, however, is held by the DCP rather than the individual NGO, so the transfer of agency registration is an administrative process rather than a fresh application.

The South Australia Foster Care Guide includes a complete walkthrough of the DHS screening process, including what the Screening Unit is specifically looking for and how to handle the wait period without stalling the rest of your assessment.

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