Completing police vetting

All people over the age of 18 in a caregiver’s household must be Police vetted.

If a rangatahi who was in the care of Oranga Tamariki has reached 18 years or older and they elect to remain or return to live in the home of an approved caregiver, they will be considered a household member and will require police vetting.  

It’s expected that a conversation will be held with the rangatahi so that they understand that this is a requirement of the caregiver approval process and the reasons why. This may help to alleviate any worries they may have around the process and about how this information may be used.

Remain or return to living with a caregiver

There may be circumstances where we consider police and CYRAS vetting to be appropriate for those household members who are under 18 years of age.

Consideration should be given to rangatahi where:

• we are aware they have had involvement with Oranga Tamariki
• we are aware they have had involvement with Youth Justice

A discussion should occur with the caregiver as part of the documentary assessment where we would consider:

• how the rangatahi has come to be in their care if they are not the caregivers own child
• the caregiver’s openness to discussing the Ranagtahi’s history (if known) and any challenges or concerns they may have regarding their behaviour.

We will need to obtain the consent of the rangatahi and should discuss their reasons sensitively as to why this information is needed.

If a caregiver or adoptive parent applicant has a boarder or a flatmate who is living in the home with separate access or on the applicants’ property, such as separate sleep out or cabin, and will not have direct contact with tamariki in the applicants care, then our discretion must apply.

 We should consider:

• how often the person visits the household and if they stay overnight
• if the person at any time have unsupervised contact with the te tamaiti
• if the person regularly share meals in the caregiver’s home or participate in activities either inside or outside where te tamaiti is present.

Urgent requests

Each site can make a limited number of urgent requests. Urgent requests have a processing time of 1 to 3 working days.

To access this service, the request must be entered into QueryME and have urgency requested specified. If your site's urgent queue is already full, you may need to pull 1 out of the queue to add your request – talk to your manager or supervisor first.

Emergency requests

The vetting service will also accept emergency same-day requests where these are essential.

When making an emergency request, we must enter the request in QueryME with urgent requested.

You also need to email the vetting service and include:

• your agency/site name and code
• the request ID
• the reason for the emergency response.

Email: qa.vetting@police.govt.nz

Designated site staff with access to QueryME will be able to assist with this. Please don't call the vetting service during office hours.

You can make an after hours request on QueryME. You also need to phone the vetting service to discuss the urgency.

You can call them after hours Monday to Friday, 7am to 9am and 5pm to 10pm.

Phone: (04) 463 4444 or (04) 463 4446

If you have no access to QueryME or it's after 10pm

If you have no access to QueryME or it's after 10pm, call the contact centre. They can enter an urgent request on your behalf.

You need to give the contact centre:

• details about the person being checked, such as their name, gender, date and place of birth, nationality and driver licence number
• your name, telephone number and site.

The contact centre will work with the police to process the request and give the information to you.

You must get consent from the person you're police vetting. If it's an emergency after hours situation, this may be verbal and you should get written consent as soon as possible.

If the request hasn't been entered into QueryME, make a follow-up request through QueryME as soon as you can – for example, the next working day. The police will provide a paper record of the request and the information provided.

The need to conduct overseas police checks should not hold up the assessment process for the caregiver however some overseas requests may be more difficult to obtain and can take longer to receive.

We must consider how long the applicant has lived in an overseas country and for what purpose, such as travel, employment, family reasons, or it’s their country of origin where they grew up.

If the applicant has been habitually resident in another country then overseas police vetting must be completed.  Habitual residence is defined as living and working in an overseas country for an extended period, more than a holiday.   

In cases where the applicant is unable to provide overseas police vetting, we should consider obtaining an additional overseas referee check from either:

• a friend or relative
• someone who they have previously lived with
• a previous employer.

This person should be able to attest to the applicant’s good character as opposed to their ability to care.

How to do it

We can request an Australian police history check through the NZ Police by using QueryME. Section 4 of the Vetting Request and Consent form must be completed.

Request and Consent Form — NZ Police Vet and Australian history check 

If you need a police history check from another country it’s the responsibility of the person you're assessing to get their police history and give it to us. Some recent migrants might already have one they could use. 

The applicant could use New Zealand Immigration's online tool to find out how they can get police vetting from other countries, or they could contact the relevant foreign embassy.

How to get a police certificate — NZ Immigration

Foreign representatives to New Zealand — NZ Foreign Affairs and Trade

If it’s not possible to complete police vetting from another country, the social work assessment needs to clearly state:

• that there’s no police vetting available for the time the applicant lived outside of New Zealand, and
• the reasons for the omission.