Managing Contractor Compliance

UnitingCare has a legal obligation to only engage contractors who hold the required regulatory compliances, in accordance with UnitingCare policies and current Aged Care, and Work Health and Safety legislation.


It is our passion to provide optimum care for our most vulnerable people in aged care, community care and hospitals. To ensure their safety and protection, the capturing of contractor compliances is essential to our charity and the services it provides.


This means all contractors providing services to UnitingCare or one of its service groups (BlueCare, ARRCS, UnitingCare Health and UnitingCare Community) are required to register and maintain their compliances with Smartek.


Smartek is a third-party organisation who collect, verify and maintain contractor compliances via their online system, ‘Smartek’.


We use the Smartek system to review contractor compliances and search for fully compliant contractors before engaging their services.

Smartek benefits for contractors

  • Provides assurance to all UnitingCare entities of your compliance
  • Assistance from Smartek customer support with preparing and providing correct documentation for UnitingCare and any other customers
  • Use it as your own compliance management system to ensure adherence to legislative and regulatory requirements, and reduce risk of financial and legal penalty due to non-compliance
  • Peace of mind knowing you will receive automatic email notifications about compliance expiries and legislative and regulatory changes, ensuring you are always 100% compliant
  • Register only once if you already use Smartek with other customers
  • Helps market your business to new customers

Smartek registration

The registration process for contractors involves answering compliance questions, uploading relevant documentation, and adding information about your employees. Sub-contractors need to separately register with Smartek as they will maintain their own contractor compliances in Smartek.

Smartek costs

An annual subscription fee is payable to Smartek to manage your contractor compliances at the company and employee-level. UnitingCare does not receive any of this fee.

  • Company: $250 +GST per annum to manage company-level compliance
  • Employees (added to company-level registration): $50 +GST per employee, per annum to manage individual compliance

If your organisation has too many employees to adhere to the above costs, please discuss with UnitingCare at procurement@ucareqld.com.au.

If your organisation is already registered in Smartek with another customer, an additional fee of $50 +GST per annum applies for Smartek to associate your profile with UnitingCare.

Getting started with Smartek

  1. Receive an email from noreply@smartek.net.au with a Smartek Invitation Code (this will be sent by the UnitingCare business representative).
  2. Visit https://app.smartek.net.au to register using your Invitation Code
  3. Follow ALL steps outlined in each section of the relevant Smartek Registration Guide:      
  4. Answer the compliance questions and upload the required company and employee compliance documentation
  5. Once marked as compliant, receive automatic email notifications about compliance expiry so you can log in to maintain compliance
  6. Engagement with UnitingCare will be via either a Purchase Order or a manual Service Engagement Form.

FAQs

Find out the answers to frequently asked questions about Smartek.

  • Q1: I have been doing business with UnitingCare and its service groups (Blue Care, ARRCS, UnitingCare Health and UnitingCare Community) for years. Why am I being asked to provide my compliances in Smartek?

    Aged Care and Work Health and Safety legislation places stringent obligations on businesses to ensure the health and safety of all persons in the workplace – including but not limited to contractors, subcontractors, their employees, labour hire, etc.


    To protect and ensure the optimum care of our most vulnerable people in aged care, community care and hospitals, there is a minimum body of information that we must know about our contractors and staff.


    It is a huge task for us to obtain, check and maintain this information from our large number of contractors, especially when businesses must ensure their data is current every day of the year. This is why we use Smartek – to collect, verify and maintain relevant compliances.

  • Q2: Are all contractors required to register with Smartek to submit and maintain their compliances?

    All contractors providing services to UnitingCare or one of its service groups (Blue Care, ARRCS, UnitingCare Health and UnitingCare Community) are required to register and maintain their compliances with Smartek.


    Smartek registration is not required for contractors supplying goods to UnitingCare.

  • Q3: Why do I have to pay an annual fee to register with Smartek?

    The annual subscription fee is paid to Smartek to collect, verify and maintain your compliances in the system. This ensures you meet the required legislative and regulatory compliances for your customers. In this case, UnitingCare.


    If you are already registered in Smartek with another customer, a lower fee of $50 +GST per annum applies. You will just need to contact Smartek and ask them to associate your profile with UnitingCare Queensland.


    Please note, UnitingCare does not receive any of this fee; we simply use the Smartek system to review the compliances of our service contractors.

  • Q4: How do I register with Smartek?

    Your UnitingCare representative will request an invitation code is sent to you from Smartek. You will then receive an email from Smartek containing the invitation code and a step-by-step guide on how to register and become compliant with Smartek.

  • Q5: Who is able to complete registration with Smartek?

    Either a manager or someone delegated/authorised to declare compliances on behalf of a company.

  • Q6: What type of contractor compliance documentation needs to be submitted?

    Examples include, an insurance Certificate of Currency, National Police Certificate, Workers Compensation Certificate (if company), licences, certifications, registrations, cards, code of practice, declarations for working safely/ reporting incidents/ vaccinations/ health mandates, and any other compliance-related documentation.

  • Q7: In addition to registering my company with Smartek, do our employees also need to be registered?

    Yes, employees also need to be registered because they have their own compliance documentation, e.g. police checks, individual certifications, licences, registrations, etc.


    Employees are responsible for uploading their own compliances/answering compliance questions. To do this, you must first add them to your company’s Smartek profile. This will enable them to receive an invitation code to create their own Smartek account.


    If you have a large number of employees to register, please discuss with UnitingCare at procurement@ucareqld.com.au

  • Q8: Do sub-contractors also need to register with Smartek?

    Yes, sub-contractors also need to be registered because they have their own compliance documentation, e.g. police checks, separate insurances, certifications, licences, registrations, etc.

  • Q9: How do I get help with registering or using Smartek?

    In the first instance, please refer to Smartek’s registration guide. You must follow ALL steps in each section of the guide to successfully register and become compliant for UnitingCare.


    For additional support, help is available via the following channels:


    Smartek
    Email: support@smartek.net.au
    Phone: 300 238 724


    UnitingCare
    Email: procurement@ucareqld.com.au


    If you would like to speak with UnitingCare directly, please email the above address with your preferred availability, and a team member will contact you.

  • Q10: I want to know more about Smartek.

    Smartek is a cloud-based compliance and governance system, owned and operated by Australian-based company, Barrington Group Australia Pty Ltd. Barringtons has been providing security risk advice, Work Health and Safety solutions, and risk mitigations to major industry sectors for over 25 years.


    All data collected by Smartek is housed in a secure Australian-based facility with physical safeguards, access protection, system redundancy and daily backups of data. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology with 2048-bit encryption is used for all pages, and Smartek complies to AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009.


    Visit the Smartek website for more information.