The children’s worker safety check is a legislative requirement of the Children’s Act 2014. All midwives are classed as core children’s workers whether employed or self-employed, and are required to complete a safety check that complies with the legislation. A safety check is required every 3 years. This is a requirement for making claims with the Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora under the Primary Maternity Services Notice, as well as a legal requirement for providing primary maternity services.

Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora has some some specific advice on renewing a safety check on its webpage titled Safety checks for Primary Maternity Service Providers.

• If you are employed, your employer is responsible for ensuring the Safety Check requirements have been met.
• If you are self-employed, in order to maintain an ongoing authorisation to claim for services provided under the Notice, you must renew your safety check yourself every three years, prior to its expiration. If you are currently authorised to claim under the Primary Maternity Services Notice (and therefore will have a current safety check) you are required to complete the ‘Existing Children’s Worker: Accredited’ Safety Check before your current certificate expires.  It is a midwife’s responsibility to make sure there is no gap between the expiry of the previous safety check and the beginning of the new one. Authorisation to claim under the Notice will be invalidated if a safety check lapses. It can take up to 6 weeks for a safety check to be completed so it is essential to initiate the process at least 6 weeks before your previous safety check expires.

• If you are a midwife who is, or has been employed during the past 3 years you should have had a safety check completed through your employer, in which case, you can ask them to complete the Employer Verification Form (DOC, 290KB), which you can also download from the Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora webpage (link above).
• For newly graduated midwives, if you have had a safety check as a new core children’s worker as part of your training placement, this can be used as for the purposes of claiming under the Notice. Have the organisation that safety checked you fill out an Employer Verification Form (DOC, 290KB) which you can then email to Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora.

If anyone is unsure of when their safety check expires, they should check their records, or they can contact the Health NZ | Te Whatu Ora by phone (0800 855 066, select option 2) or email: customerservice@health.govt.nz

If you have had a check completed previously through CV Check, you can go directly to the CV Check website at cvcheck.com/nz and log into your account to initiate a renewal by completing the ‘Existing Children’s Worker Accredited’ Safety Check.

Navigating the CV Check website

Select ‘Choose your Checks’ then select the tab at the top called ‘Bundle Packages’. This will bring up a list of options relevant to midwives. For renewals, choose ‘Children’s Worker Safety Check RENEWAL: Accredited’.

If you need any help ordering/completing your check please get in touch with CVCheck’s customer service team on 0800 282 432.