Employer Working with Children Check applications

If you represent a business or if you're a sole trader, contractor or self-employed and you employ workers or volunteers, you can register as an organisation to apply for a screening check for yourself and initiate your employees' checks.

An employer can initiate a WWCC on behalf of a current or prospective employee or volunteer.

To do this, your organisation must be registered with the Screening Unit. Once you've registered, you can start applications on behalf of individuals.

Register with the screening unit

Apply on behalf of an individual

Before you start an application on behalf of an individual, you will need to know:

• what type of check you need to apply for
• that the individual has given their consent for your organisation to do a check
• the individual’s full name, date of birth and email address.

Log in to the portal

Managing your applications

When you have completed the organisation component of the application, the Screening Unit will email login and password details to the individual, to complete and submit the application.

Organisations that initiate WWCCs have the option to use organisation-verified ID if a verifying officer has been nominated.

Manage WWCC expiry and renewal using the DHS Organisation Portal

Employers and organisations have an important role to play in safeguarding children, by ensuring employees or volunteer who work with them have a valid WWCC.

Work on re-application

Workers who complete a Working with Children Check (WWCC) application before their current WWCC expires are eligible to continue working with children while their application is finalised. This is called ‘work on re-application’.

You can view the status of workers linked to your organisation, including their work on re-application status, in the Screening organisation portal. It is your organisation’s choice to allow eligible workers to work on re-application or not.

Important things to note:

• Work on re-application only applies if and when the worker's current WWCC expires. Check if the worker has a current WWCC before considering their work on re-application status. If the worker has a current WWCC which is yet to expire, their work on re-application status will be ‘No’. These workers can still work with children.
• If the worker does not have a current WWCC and their work on re-application status is ‘No’ they cannot work with children. It is an offence for you to continue to allow this person to work with children.
• If the worker does not have a current WWCC and their work on re-application status is ‘Yes’ they can work with children while their application is finalised.

The Screening Unit will tell you when a worker’s WWCC expires and if they are eligible to work on re-application or not. You must register an interest in the worker through the organisation portal to receive these notifications.

The Screening Unit will also tell a worker when their WWCC expires and if they are eligible to work on re-application or not.

Your obligations as an employer

A prescribed position is an employee or volunteer who works with children, or works in a position in which, during the ordinary course of their duties, it is reasonably foreseeable that they'll work with children.

You must not employ a new person, or continue to employ a person, in a prescribed position unless they have verified that the person has had a Working with Children Check (WWCC) conducted in the preceding 5 years, and that they're not prohibited from working with children.

Verification is the process of confirming that a potential new employee or an existing employee has had a WWCC and is not prohibited from working with children. Verification must be done online, sighting a persons WWCC outcome email is not sufficient. Employers and organisations can verify a WWCC through their organisation portal.

Employers who do not comply with these requirements are guilty of an offence under the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016 .

Responsibilities

As an employer you must:

• identify and keep records of roles within your organisation which are prescribed positions and need a Working with Children Check.
• register your organisation with the Screening Unit and set-up an organisation portal, nominate users to perform certain functions and receive notifications from the Screening Unit
• keep your organisation portal user contact details up to date
• verify new employees and volunteers have a WWCC before they work in a prescribed position
• confirm existing employees or volunteers renew their WWCC every 5 years
• keep records of when you have verified an employee's WWCC
• register an interest of everyone working in a prescribed position through your organisation portal
• manage employee WWCC expiry and renewal, including starting applications on their behalf
• remove any employee from a prescribed position:
  • whose WWCC has expired and ensure the person doesn't work with children
  • who is prohibited from working with children and ensure prohibited persons do not work with children.

Notifying the Screening Unit

Employers have additional obligations under the Child Safety (Prohibited Persons) Act 2016 .

You must notify the Screening Unit immediately if you become aware that a person you employ in a prescribed position:

• has new assessable information - eg the person has been charged with or found guilty of an offence or is subject to disciplinary or misconduct proceedings, an intervention or restraining order
• is prohibited from working with children in another State or Territory
• becomes a registrable offender under the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006, or
• makes a disclosure to you under section 66 of the Child Sex Offenders Registration Act 2006.

This is known as a section 19 report, and can be made through your organisation portal. It's an offence (with a maximum penalty of $25,000) to refuse or fail to notify the Screening Unit of this information.

Advise the Screening Unit immediately if you become aware of any assessable information in relation to an employee.

If you receive an email from the Screening Unit advising you that a current employee has become prohibited from working with children, you must immediately remove them from a prescribed position. It doesn't matter whether they are paid or unpaid, supervised or unsupervised.

Related information

• WWCC Information for Organisations (PDF 1MB)
• How to set up your online portal (PDF 280KB)
• Screening unit organisation portal user manual (PDF 2MB)