Ask for a Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check, known as a police check, and get it either through your cleaner directly or through an ACIC-accredited body you set up as a business customer. The fastest verification path is an accredited body’s online portal, since a majority of applications clear automatically. You’ll need signed, informed consent and identity documents before anything moves, and the result you get back is only valid at the exact moment it’s issued.
TL;DR:
- Most police checks for cleaners are processed through accredited bodies, which simplify repeat applications for business clients and ensure reports are valid at issuance.
- Requirements vary by role, with childcare and aged-care positions demanding additional checks like Working With Children Checks or sector-specific screenings.
- Collecting consent and identity documents before submission and verifying reports with branded verification tools are essential steps to avoid delays or errors.
- Police checks only provide a snapshot of records up to the document date and do not include spent convictions, requiring ongoing rechecks for high-risk environments.
- Disputes over check results should be resolved directly with issuing agencies, and employers should pause adverse decisions until any contested entries are clarified.
Table of Contents
- What is a cleaner police check and who runs it?
- Which check does your cleaner actually need?
- How to obtain and verify a cleaner’s police check
- What a police check actually shows, and where it falls short
- How long it takes and what it costs
- Turning compliance into a simple hiring routine
- Can a cleaner dispute or correct a police check result?
- An East Melbourne perspective on hiring cleaners safely
- Sources
What is a cleaner police check and who runs it?
The Nationally Coordinated Criminal History Check (NCCHC) is the standard “police check” employers request, delivered through the National Police Checking Service (NPCS) and overseen by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC). ACIC sets the rules but doesn’t process individual applications itself. Instead, checks flow through a network of accredited bodies, or directly through state and territory police agencies and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for certain applicants.
This matters for anyone hiring cleaners because it changes how you get results.
- ACIC does not accept direct applications from individuals or businesses.
- Accredited bodies are private organisations authorised to submit checks on ACIC’s behalf and return a branded report.
- Police-issued certificates (from the AFP or a state police agency) cover the same national database but follow a different submission path, usually for the applicant’s own personal use.
- Businesses that need frequent checks can apply to become an accredited body themselves or register as a customer of an existing one.
For most cleaning businesses, going through an accredited body is simpler than dealing with state police directly, since it’s built for repeat commercial use.
Which check does your cleaner actually need?
Not every cleaning role calls for the same screening. A standard police check covers general criminal history, but several cleaning contexts trigger extra legal requirements you can’t substitute with a basic check.
- General office or retail cleaning — a standard NCCHC is usually sufficient.
- Childcare centre cleaning — most states require a Working With Children Check (WWCC) in addition to, or instead of, a police check, even for contractors who only work after hours.
- NDIS-funded sites — anyone in a “risk-assessed role” needs NDIS worker screening, a separate and more rigorous process than a standard police check.
- Aged-care facilities — many providers mandate their own screening on top of a police check, reflecting sector-specific guidelines.
- Subcontractors and agency staff — confirm who is responsible for the check; don’t assume the agency has already done it.
Put the requirement in writing. State the exact check type in job ads and in the contract itself, so there’s no ambiguity later and no risk of applying the rule unevenly across candidates.
How to obtain and verify a cleaner’s police check
Getting this right comes down to sequencing. Consent and identity first, submission second, verification third.
- Get informed consent in writing before you request anything. This isn’t optional. Legal guidance is clear that the request must be proportionate to the role and the candidate must understand what’s being checked.
- Collect identity documents. Most applications need around four identity documents covering proof of identity, address and signature. Missing documents are the single biggest cause of delay.
- Choose your route. Either the candidate applies through an accredited body and shares the result with you, or you register as a customer of an accredited body and submit on their behalf.
- Verify the returned report. Genuine reports carry a verification number, the accredited body’s branding, and an issue date. If anything looks off, contact the accredited body directly, not the candidate.
- File the result securely and note the issue date for future reference.
Pro Tip: Ask your accredited body whether they offer a verification lookup tool. Most do, and it takes thirty seconds to confirm a report hasn’t been altered.
What a police check actually shows, and where it falls short
A returned check lists disclosable court outcomes as they stood on the day it was processed. It won’t include spent convictions, because those are legally excluded from disclosure, and the rules on what counts as “spent” differ from state to state.
The bigger limitation is timing. A police check is a point-in-time snapshot.
- It reflects records up to the exact date and time it was issued, nothing before or after.
- It cannot be recycled for a different role or a different employer later on.
- A clean result from six months ago tells you nothing about what’s happened since.
Roughly 30% of NCCHC applications get referred for manual police review rather than clearing automatically, often because a name partially matches a record that needs human eyes to rule in or out. That’s a normal part of the process, not a red flag on the applicant.
How long it takes and what it costs
Budget for two different timelines depending on how the application clears. Around 70% of NPCS applications process within minutes to a few days. The remaining 30% get referred to a police agency for manual vetting and can stretch past ten business days, sometimes considerably longer if records need cross-checking across jurisdictions.
- An individual applying directly to the AFP for a National Police Certificate pays a $56 AUD fee as of 2026, with the certificate delivered digitally by email.
- Accredited-body fees vary by provider and volume, and are typically billed to the business account rather than the individual.
- Build the check into your recruitment timeline early. Make the job offer conditional on a satisfactory result, and don’t set a start date until the report is back.
Turning compliance into a simple hiring routine
Rules only help if they turn into repeatable habits. That’s the difference between a policy sitting in a drawer and one that actually protects your business and your clients.
- State the check requirement plainly in every job ad and every cleaning contract, so it applies consistently across candidates.
- Store results with restricted access, ideally separate from general HR files, and set a retention period rather than keeping them indefinitely.
- Tie re-check timing to site risk. Higher-trust environments like medical clinics or childcare centres warrant a fresh check roughly every year; lower-risk commercial sites can usually stretch to two or three years between checks.
- Make identity sighting part of onboarding, not an afterthought after the first shift.
At 360 Cleaning Solutions, this looks like verifying documents before a cleaner is rostered onto any client site, keeping conditional offers genuinely conditional, and building accreditation standards into how staff are matched to sensitive sites like clinics and childcare centres.
Pro Tip: If you manage several sites, keep a simple spreadsheet with each cleaner’s check date and next re-check due date. It sounds basic, but it’s the single easiest way to avoid a lapsed check going unnoticed for a year.
Can a cleaner dispute or correct a police check result?
Yes, and the process is more accessible than most candidates assume. If a cleaner believes their report contains an error, wrongly listed spent conviction, mismatched identity, or an outcome that belongs to someone else, the first step is contacting the accredited body or police agency that issued the check, not the employer.
Most disputes fall into a few categories. A record might belong to another person with a similar name, particularly common with more frequent surnames. A conviction might have since become spent under state legislation and should no longer appear. Court outcomes are sometimes recorded incorrectly, especially where a charge was later withdrawn or downgraded.
The cleaner should request a review directly through the issuing body, supplying documentation such as court records or identity evidence to support the correction. Police agencies typically investigate disputed entries and issue an amended certificate once resolved, though this can take several weeks depending on how many jurisdictions need to confirm records.
As an employer, the fairest approach is to pause any adverse hiring decision while a genuine dispute is underway, rather than acting on a report the candidate is actively contesting. Document that a dispute has been lodged, and ask for evidence the review has been completed before finalising your decision either way. Rushing to reject a candidate over a disputed entry exposes you to fairness complaints down the track, and it’s avoidable with a short delay.
An East Melbourne perspective on hiring cleaners safely
Consistency beats speed here. The employers who run into trouble aren’t the ones who take an extra week for a check to clear. They’re the ones who wave a check through for one hire and skip it for the next.
The best routine I’ve seen is boring by design: sight physical ID before rostering, make every offer genuinely conditional, and set re-check dates the moment someone starts. Cleaning businesses working across childcare centres, clinics and offices in one week can’t treat screening as an afterthought. It has to be the same process every time, for every site, regardless of how urgently a shift needs filling.
— Jonathan
If your business needs cleaners who already meet this standard, rather than managing the screening yourself, our office cleaning workflow outlines how 360 Cleaning Solutions builds vetting into staffing decisions for clients across East Melbourne, alongside flexible, no-lock-in commercial cleaning contracts that keep accountability with us, not you.