Sector guide
Authorised carers and adults who
reside at their home
October 2014
Do I need the Working With Children
Check?
Yes. In accordance with the Child Protection
(Working with Children) Act 2012, authorised
carers and adults who reside at their home are required to hold a Working
With Children Check clearance or have made a current application for a
clearance.
The deadline for authorised carers and adults who reside at their
homes to apply for a Working With Children Check is 31 March 2014.
This applies to household members (including family members) who are
turning 18 before 31 March 2014. People about to turn 18 must apply no
sooner than one month before they turn 18.
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Definitions
An authorised carer means a foster carer or other authorised carer of children in statutory or
supported out-of-home care.
An adult household member means a person who is 18 or over who resides at the home of an
authorised carer.
Residing at a home is not limited to a permanent living arrangement and there are a number of
factors to be considered in determining whether or not someone resides at a home. These include
(but are not limited to):
•
The amount of time the person spends at the home
•
How frequently they stay
•
Whether or not their staying at the home is a regular or usual arrangement
•
Whether the arrangement will be ongoing
A person does not need to have lived at a place for any particular amount of time before they are
considered to be residing there.
It is also possible for a person to reside at more than one home.
Authorised carers are required to notify the designated agency that authorised them as soon as
practicable after an adult begins residing at their home and will continue to do so on a regular
basis.
Suite 1, Level 13,
418A Elizabeth Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Check: 02 9286 7219
Fax: 02 8219 3699
ABN 43 304 920 597
www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/check
Email: [email protected]
Penalties for non-compliance
It is a criminal offence for an adult person to be authorised as a carer or to reside at the home of
an authorised carer if the person does not hold a Working With Children Check clearance or have
a completed application in progress.
Any people who were authorised carers or adult household members as at 15 June 2013 have
until 31 March 2014 to obtain a Working With Children Check clearance or complete an application
for a Working With Children Check. Those that fail to do so will be committing a criminal offence.
An adult household member has a defence to proceedings for the above offences if they have
been living at the carer’s home on a regular basis for less than 3 weeks.
It is a criminal offence for a designated agency to authorise a person as a carer, or to permit an
adult person to reside at a carer’s home, if the person does not hold a Working With Children
Check clearance or have a completed application in progress.
Designated agencies have until 31 March 2014 to ensure that all authorised carers hold a
clearance or have a completed application in progress.
An agency that does not meet its Working With Children Check obligations – and staff, carers and
adult household members of carers associated with that agency who do not meet their Working
With Children Check obligations – may be subject to prosecution. Agencies may face penalties of
up to $11,000, and staff, carers and adult household members may face penalties of up to $11,000
and/or 2 years imprisonment.
Ongoing arrangements for an agency’s accreditation as a designated agency may also need to be
reviewed where an agency has not implemented systems to promote compliance with Working
With Children Check requirements.
An agency may have to manage changes to out-of-home care placement arrangements where a
carer or adult household member has not met Working With Children Check requirements.
Audit
The Office of the Children’s Guardian will commence its Working With Children Check audit
program from 1 April 2014. The audit will seek to understand how employers are managing their
obligations under the Act to ensure that all relevant persons have a clearance or current
application for a clearance of a class applicable to that work. The audit will require access to
record keeping for the Working With Children Check and may involve site visits. These visits will
be determined following consultation about how the obligation is being managed, and analysis of
data.
Attachments
•
•
•
•
•
Attachment A: How do I apply?
Attachment B: What gets checked?
Attachment C: When will the results be available?
Attachment D: (For employers) How to verify a clearance online
Attachment E: Bars and appeals
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Attachment A
How do I apply?
You only need to apply for one Working With Children Check. If you have a paid job and a
volunteer role working with children, the Check for paid workers will cover you for both.
Applying from overseas or interstate? See FACT SHEET: Overseas applicants or FACT SHEET:
Interstate applicants or FACT SHEET: Interstate or incapacitated authorised carers or
householders: Identity verification options on our Fact sheets and resources web page.
STEP 1: Complete an online application form
•
•
•
•
Go to www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/check
and complete the online application form. If
you do not have access to the internet,
please telephone (02) 9286 7219 for
assistance.
Please make sure the details you provide
are EXACTLY THE SAME as the details on
your identity documents. If you have
submitted the form with a mistake, please
redo the form to avoid problems with the
proof of identity requirement at step two.
Ensure you select the correct category: paid or volunteer worker. The $80 fee for paid
workers is not refundable if you are a volunteer and you choose ‘paid worker’ by mistake. A
Check for paid workers will cover both paid and volunteer work in NSW for five years.
Once you have submitted the form, you will receive an application number that looks like
this: APP1234567.
Need help? Video tutorials are available on our website: Online tutorials.
STEP 2: Present proof of your identity
•
•
•
Go to a NSW Motor Registry, RMS Agency, or Service NSW office (not your local Council).
Find a location at www.service.nsw.gov.au/service-centre.
You will need your application number and proof of your identity. You must have both of
these items for your application to proceed.
If you are in paid work, you will also be required to pay an $80 fee for a five year clearance.
See FACT SHEET: Fee information.
PLEASE NOTE: Before you go to submit your proof of identity
•
•
•
You cannot submit proof of identity on behalf of someone else. You must appear in person
with your own documentation.
Proof of identity cannot be performed outside of NSW. It must be completed at a NSW
Motor Registry, RMS Agency, or Service NSW office (not your local Council).
Additional identity verification options are available for authorised carers and their adult
household members who live interstate, and for those who are medically unable to attend a
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motor registry or Service NSW office. See FACT SHEET Interstate or incapacitated
authorised carers or householders: Identity verification options.
Receiving your results
You will receive your outcome and Working With Children Check number by email (or post if you
do not have an email address). See also FACT SHEET: When will I receive my results? If you
have not received your results within four weeks, please email your details and application number
to [email protected].
Find a NSW motor registry
Locations of NSW Motor Registries, RMS Agencies, or Service NSW offices can be found at
www.service.nsw.gov.au/service-centre.
More information
For more information, please go to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) available from at
www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/check.
If you have further questions, please email [email protected].
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Attachment B
What gets checked?
Criminal history
The Working With Children Check obtains applicants’ national criminal histories from CrimTrac.
The records include:
•
•
•
Convictions (spent or unspent)
Charges (whether heard, unheard or dismissed)
Juvenile records
Findings of misconduct and Notifications by the Ombudsman
Findings of misconduct by a reporting body and Notifications made by the Ombudsman are also
considered in the Working With Children Check. If a misconduct investigation finds that sexual
misconduct or serious physical assault of a child has occurred, nominated reporting bodies must
report this finding. The Ombudsman will also report matters he is aware of that indicate serious risk
to children.
See Information for reporting bodies: Reporting certain misconduct involving children on
our Fact sheets and resources web page.
Ongoing monitoring
If the outcome of a Working With Children Check is a clearance, the cleared individual will be
subject to ongoing monitoring for relevant new records for the five year life of the clearance. Some
records will trigger a risk assessment by the Office of the Children’s Guardian, which may lead to
the clearance being revoked.
See FACT SHEET: Risk assessment.
Records listed in Schedule 2 of the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 lead to an
automatic bar against working with children. Equivalent records from other states and territories
also lead to an automatic bar.
For a full list of these records, see FACT SHEET: Disqualifying offences (Schedule 2).
Records include convictions for certain offences and charges for these same offences that have
not yet been heard. Section 5 of the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 states that
a conviction includes a finding that an offence is proven, or the person is guilty, even though the
court does not record a conviction.
Most individuals subject to a bar can seek a review of the bar in the Administrative Decisions
Tribunal. See ATTACHMENT E: Bars and appeals.
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Attachment C
When will the results be available?
While some people receive their results within a few days of completing the application process,
others may need to wait much longer than this, depending on their personal information.
If your application requires a review of records, this may add weeks to the processing time. If the
records are deemed relevant and serious enough, you may be subject to a risk assessment, which
may take a few months. See FACT SHEET: Risk assessment.
However, for most people delays can be attributed to one of the following:
1. common surname or date of birth
2. sharing the name as someone who has a criminal history
3. records against your name.
We received more than 300,000 applications in the first six months of operation, and many of
these were from people who are not due to apply – see FACT SHEET: Phase-in schedule for
existing workers. This continues to contribute to delays in processing for people required to apply.
Please allow FOUR WEEKS to receive your results before contacting us.
We cannot provide you with an update on the progress of your application before this time.
Common surname or date of birth
The Check involves a national police check and review of any workplace records. Therefore, it is of
vital importance that every individual is correctly identified. If you have a commonly occurring
surname like Smith, Brown or Nguyen, the process of cross-referencing your name against records
databases may take longer.
Same name as someone with records
If you are unlucky enough to have the same name as a person with a criminal history, your Check
results may be delayed while your identity is matched using additional information such as date of
birth and licence details. This will delay your results but ensure that you are not mistakenly
associated with records belonging to another individual.
Records against your name
If you have any criminal records or there are findings of misconduct by a reporting body against
your name, these records will need to be reviewed to determine whether or not they are relevant
for the purposes of a Working With Children Check.
Some records will lead to a risk assessment. These are listed in the FACT SHEET: Assessment
requirement triggers (Schedule 1). Other records will lead to an automatic bar against working with
children. These are listed in the FACT SHEET: Disqualifying records (Schedule 2).
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Attachment D
(For employers) How to verify a clearance online
PLEASE NOTE Verification MUST be done online. Printed evidence of a Working With
Children Check application or clearance is NOT acceptable because the documents may be
fraudulent, or the individual may have become barred since obtaining their clearance.
Before you hire a new, paid child-related worker, you must verify the status of their Working With
Children Check online to ensure they have a clearance to work with children, or have completed
an application for a Check.
As volunteers (new and existing) and current paid workers are phased in, you will need to verify
their Working With Children Checks online too. See FACT SHEET: Phase in schedule.
If you are an employer
1. Go to www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/check and click the Start here button on the right. A
new page will appear.
2. Choose Employer log in and verify from the Verify section then enter your login details. If
you have not already
registered as an
employer, please choose
Register.
3. Select the Verify Working
With Children status tab.
4. Enter the worker’s:
• surname
• date of birth
• Working With
Children Check
number (or application number)
5. Click Verify.
If you are a parent or other individual seeking to verify
someone online
Follow the process above except at step two, choose Individuals (e.g. parents) verify from the
Verify section. The results will be emailed to you. For step by step instructions, refer to the FACT
SHEET: Parents.
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What do the results of online verification mean?
When you receive the email with the results of online verification, it will contain a brief status report
about the person’s Working With Children Check. These are the possible results and their meaning.
Status
Application in
progress
Meaning
A Working With Children Check application is being processed and the
applicant may work with children.
If the applicant becomes barred, the Commission will contact you and
advise you of what to do next.
Cleared
This applicant has a Working With Children Check clearance that is valid
until the listed expiry date.
Barred
The applicant has been barred from working with children and it is an
offence to engage this person in child-related work or child-related roles.
Interim barred
The applicant has been barred from working with children during the
course of a risk assessment. It is an offence to engage this person in
child-related work or child-related roles.
The database cannot find a matching Working With Children Check for
any one of these reasons:
The data entered for verification (name, date of birth and Working With
Children Check number or application number) has errors;
Not found
The person’s application has been withdrawn or terminated without an
outcome;
The person has not completed an application for a Working With Children
Check (filled in the online form, presented proof of identity and paid any
applicable fee).
It is an offence to engage this person in child-related work or child-related
roles.
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Attachment E
Bars and appeals
When you apply for a Working With Children Check, there are only two outcomes; a clearance to
work with children or a bar against working with children.
When is a bar applied?
Risk assessment
If you are subject to a risk assessment you may become barred from working with children. For
more information, see the FACT SHEET: Risk assessment available from the fact sheets and
resources page of the website at www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/check.
Disqualifying offences
Offences listed in Schedule 2 of the Child Protection (Working With Children) Act 2012 are
disqualifying offences which means they will lead to an automatic bar against working with children.
Details of Schedule 2 offences are available in the FACT SHEET: Disqualifying offences (Schedule
2).
Receiving notification of a proposed bar
If a bar is being considered, the Office of the Children’s Guardian will contact you by phone and by
letter to inform you of the proposed decision. You will also be invited to submit information which
may affect the decision and this information must be taken into account in deciding the final
outcome.
Receiving notification of a bar
If the Children’s Guardian has decided not to grant you a clearance to work with children (that is, to
impose a bar), you will receive a letter informing you of this decision. The letter will also provide
you with the reasons for the decision.
If you are already in child-related work (or planning to be in such employment), your employer (or
prospective employer), will be notified that you have become barred and instructed to remove you
from child-related work. However, no information regarding your work or criminal records will be
shared with your employer (or prospective employer).
What is the effect of a bar?
Once a bar is in place, it is an offence to work with children for five years and penalties apply.
If you are already working with children, you must immediately remove yourself from this work,
regardless of whether it is paid or unpaid.
What is the difference between a bar and an interim bar?
A bar is applied once a final decision has been made that an individual must not engage in childrelated work for five years (unless circumstances have changed that permit an earlier application).
An interim bar is used to prevent high risk individuals from working with children while a risk
assessment is conducted and until a final decision is made. A person who is subject to an interim
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bar must not engage in child-related employment while it is in force. An interim bar may be
imposed for up to 12 months.
Not everyone who is subject to a risk assessment will receive an interim bar.
When can a bar be appealed?
You can appeal a bar in any circumstance except the following:
•
•
•
you are subject to an interim bar which has been in force for less than six months (you
must wait six months before you can apply)
you have a bar due to ongoing proceedings relating to a disqualifying offence under
Schedule 2 (you must wait until these proceedings have been concluded before you can
apply
you have a bar because you have been convicted of child murder.
How do I lodge an appeal?
Applications for a review must be lodged with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT)
within 28 days of receiving notification of a final bar or after an interim bar has been in force for six
months. If you miss this deadline, contact NCAT as they may grant you an extension.
For more information on the review process, call the Administrative Decisions Tribunal Registry on
1300 006228 or visit www.ncat.nsw.gov.au.
For more information, refer the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or the fact sheets and
resources page of our website at www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/check.
See also
Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012
Child Protection (Working with Children) Regulation 2013
Disclaimer: The material provided in this Sector Guide for guidance only. Every effort has been made to
ensure that the information is accurate, current and not misleading. However, this cannot always be
guaranteed and no warranty is given that the information is free from error or omission. Users should
exercise their own skill and care with respect to the use of the material. The information is also not a
substitute for independent legal or other professional advice and users should obtain appropriate
professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances.
The Office of the Children’s Guardian does not guarantee, and accepts no legal liability whatsoever for any
act done, omission made, loss, damage, cost or inconvenience arising from, connected to, or as a
consequence of, using or relying on the material contained in this Sector Guide.
Working With Children Check Sector Guide: Authorised carers
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