Six Weeks

[skyring]

The timespan for getting a police check is 4-6 weeks. I posted my form off, with the correct money, on 15 August. That, by my reckoning, was six weeks and three days ago. It was the first thing I did in the process, and I've got everything else done, out of the way, finshed.

As much as I can do, anyway. There are still a few hoops to jump through, practical driving test, getting an endorsement on my licence, buying a uniform, getting a PIN for the despatch system. But I can't do anything until I get my police check back. Can't book the appointment for the prac test without having a positive check in my hot little hand. I could probably buy a uniform, but I'm going to have at least two days notice before I do the practical test, so I can hang off on that.

The mail came in this morning, and surprise, surprise, no police check. So I rang up three different numbers, got a bit of hold, a bit of runaround, before finding someone who could tell me about the progress. Apparently, according to the Criminal Records Section of the Australian Federal Police, it's in the final stage and will take about a week from now.

Which probably means two weeks before I see it, knowing how bureaucracies work.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I can understand the frustrating wait. I had to get one a couple of years ago while starting to work in the NSW public hospital system. It was mainly because I would be working with children. It didn't seem to matter that I'd spent years working in the system before.

The strangest thing was I couldn't work in public hospitals until the police check came through but I COULD work in private hospitals without any problems. Apparently I could be trusted to work with children with private health insurance but not those kids without!

[skyring.livejournal.com]

In my case, it's a matter of the legislation. Taxidrivers are often used to move children, disabled and elderly people from one place to another, and anyone convicted of a crime of violence or a sexual crime is prevented from working in such an occupation.

This applies to all taxidrivers in Canberra, and it makes sense.

I would imagine that the legislation covering private and public hospitals could be different - presumably the public hospital has more descriptive legislation than hospitals in general.