Productivity Commission report recommends national screening check for aged care and childcare workers

The Productivity Commission says a national screening clearance for workers in aged care and child care sectors would help protect vulnerable care users from harm and cut unnecessary complexity and costs.

An interim report calls for the development of a national check to replace existing police checks for aged care workers and working with children checks for early childhood educators as part of streamlining regulation across different care sectors.

In the latest of its “five pillars” reports looking at tackling sluggish productivity, the commission said the different layers of regulation now required to monitor quality and safety across multiple levels of government made the care economy too complex.

“Fragmented regulation across the care sector reduces productivity, heightens the risk of harms, limits access to care and creates unnecessary burdens for care providers,” Commissioner Martin Stokie said.

“Previous reform efforts have faced roadblocks and lost momentum — we need a fresh, concerted approach.”

The report said while effective worker screening was needed to protect the most vulnerable members of the community, fragmented systems could mean “unsafe workers slip through the cracks unnoticed, undermining the integrity of the screening process and putting care users at risk”.

Aligning quality and safety regulation would better protect care users from unsafe providers and workers. It would also allow workers to move more easily across care sectors.

The report proposed that over the next three years, Australian governments should work together to develop a national screening clearance for workers in aged care, the NDIS, veterans’ care and early childhood education and care.

The commission also suggested setting up a common process to assess providers’ suitability and creating a single digital portal to manage their registration.

The report comes amid moves to tighten regulations around the childcare sector — a responsibility shared by Federal and State Governments — after shocking revelations that alleged paedophile Joshua Dale Brown was able to work unheeded in 24 childcare centres in Victoria, prompting warnings to more than 2000 families to test their children for sexually transmitted infection.

Mr Brown — who had a valid working with children check — has been charged with dozens of offences, including alleged sexual assault, producing child abuse material and contaminating food with his bodily fluids.