Students need to have applied and received back their checks at least 3 weeks prior to commencing the first day of placement in preparation to submitting to Sonia Online for approval by the placement team.
Police Check
Please submit a valid police check to Sonia Online to the relevant submission portal by the specified due date.
If this is your first placement or you are attending a placement at Public Health placement (e.g. Monash Health) then you must provide an original police check only. Note: Police checks are only evidence of no offences up to the issued date and organisations can choose how long they are valid, but most places generally see them to be valid for 12 months.
Police Checks must be a Victorian or Federal check and be dated within the previous 12 months at the time of enrolment.
- Only a ‘name check’ is required.
- Students should apply for the Police Check for the purposes of ‘Student Psychology Counselling Placement’.
- Community Volunteer Fee (CVF) only available for Victoria Police National checks (page 7 on the PDF version of the Alternative Application for National Police Check form).
- Students need to have applied and received back their checks at least 3 weeks prior to commencing the first day of placement.
Note
The Cairnmillar Institute sees a police check as valid for 12 months so your expiry date is 12 months from the issued date. Students are required to renew their police check every 12 months. The police check should be either brand new or have at least 6 months validity left when beginning a placement.
CVF Discount Eligibility and Process
The Victoria Police offer VIC-based students a discounted rate known as the Community Volunteer Fee (CVF). Students are required to physically bring the application to reception for staff to certify it to allow the student to receive the discounted rate as per the Victoria Police requirements. Unfortunately, these requirements prevent forms from being emailed or posted.
NOTE: VIC-based online students are only eligible for a discount if they can come to the campus with the application form. See also: Community Volunteer Fee (CVF) for Police Checks.
The price is published as ‘Volunteer for an authorised organisation’ on the Victoria Police website and is updated every year. Victoria Police does not conduct police record checks for overseas or interstate applicants, temporary/permanent residency or citizenship.
Click here for CVF application form
Note
The discounted version is only available to Victorian-based students but not an option if you have delayed in applying for a police check and/or Admin have asked you to arrange one urgently in which case, students should use one of the options below.
Urgent Renewals requested by Admin
Please note: if you have delayed in applying or your police check expires or is close to expiring while you are still on placement and you have been followed up by CMI staff to provide an urgent renewed version, this discounted version is no longer an option as it can take over 2 weeks or more to be processed. Please refer to the below online options only.
Accredited agencies may not offer a discounted rate for students, however you will receive the approved copy via email. This does not need to be certified.
If you use a third party service you may need our ABN to authorise them to send us your information. Our ABN is 27 005 085 423.
Please Note: The original Police Record Check will be retained by the student, which may at a later date be requested directly by the host organisation conducting the placement.
Alternative Fast Online Options
The following are acceptable agencies that can provide a checking service:
- http://www.crimtrac.gov.au/national_police_checking_service
- https://www.nationalcrimecheck.com.au
- http://www.policecheck.com.au
- https://www.fit2work.com.au/individualCheck
- https://auspost.com.au/police-checks
VIT Registration (Victorian Institute of Teaching)
If you are registered with VIT and have a VIT card, you are not required to apply for another police check as this information was checked during the VIT registration process. Just upload an image of both sides of your card to your pre-placement folder or a screenshot/copy of your Digital Registration card.
Interstate and Overseas Police Checks
If you have recently moved to Victoria and have a police check from a different state, you will need to still apply and submit a Victorian National Police check as interstate checks or are unable to be accepted. Refer to the above section.
Overseas applicants or applicants wanting temporary/permanent residency or citizenship must apply to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). For these purposes, please visit the Australian Federal Police website. Interstate applicants must apply to their respective police jurisdiction. http://www.afp.gov.au/. Unfortunately, there is no CVF discount for the Australian Federal Police (AFP), however applications are approved within one business day.
When applying you can select: National Police Check application from a government department or an individual.
Note
If you are enrolled in the Post Registration (Clinical Psychology) or Master of Professional Psychology (MPP) course and located outside of Victoria, you need to supply a Police check from your relevant State. If you have any further queries about this, please contact your Placement Coordinator.
Statutory Declarations
Only accepted in place of a renewed police check in exceptional circumstances and only if this is not your first placement and you’re not at Monash Health, then a Police Check that has recently expired (no more than 6 months expired) can be accompanied by a Statutory Declaration confirming that there are “no disclosable court outcomes” since the issue date (Statutory Declaration Form)
If you are submitting a stat dec in place of a current police check, make sure that you submit the expired police check with the stat dec as one file. This option shouldn’t be seen as the norm. If it is a time sensitive issue and you’re not a newly enrolled student, then a stat dec can be submitted but it is preferred that a renewed police check is submitted the majority of the time. Note: the stat dec does not need to reference the expired police check. Your new expiry date will become 12 months from the date of the stat dec.
A statutory declaration may be made before a person on the list of authorised witnesses in the Statutory Declarations Regulations 2018:
- a person who is currently licensed or registered under a law of a state or territory to practise in one of the following occupations:
- architect
- chiropractor
- dentist
- financial adviser or financial planner
- legal practitioner
- medical practitioner
- midwife
- migration agent registered under Division 3 of Part 3 of the Migration Act 1958
- nurse
- occupational therapist
- optometrist
- patent attorney
- pharmacist
- physiotherapist
- psychologist
- trade marks attorney
- veterinary surgeon