Each of the five states covered here runs its own screening check for people who work with children, and their rules differ. In Queensland, a blue card is needed to teach, coach or tutor children on a commercial basis; in South Australia, people that parents personally engage to work directly with their children must hold a Working with Children Check, and the state’s page for parents names tutors among them.
General informationThis page summarises the published rules of five states: New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia. It is not legal advice. Whether a particular person needs a check, or holds a current one, is a question for the state’s screening agency, named under each state below.
New South Wales
Working with Children Check · Office of the Children’s Guardian
The Office of the Children’s Guardian includes tutors, with music and dance teachers, coaches and nannies, in its examples of people who work with children. The check is a separate thing from a police check. A clearance lasts 5 years, and stays with the person if they change jobs. Under NSW law, someone can begin working with children once they have an application (APP) number, though some employers require a full clearance first.
Confirming a check
The Office says parents and carers need to verify the WWC or APP number of a self-employed or independent worker before that person starts, and its page for parents lists tutors among its examples of people a parent may need to verify. The worker supplies their family name, date of birth and number, which go into the Office’s verify form with the parent’s own details. Only someone shown as Cleared or Application in progress can be hired, and anyone barred, interim barred or not found is not to be used.
Verifying also lets the Office contact the family if the check’s status changes. The Office suggests keeping a note of the expiry date and verifying again if the worker is still working with the family when the check expires; the Service NSW app can show and verify details too.
Victoria
Working with Children Check · Social Services Regulator, through Service Victoria
Victoria’s check is a screening process for people who work with or care for children in the state; a person who passes is given a WWC Clearance. Anyone whose role involves child-related work, and who does not fit one of the exemptions, must apply online through Service Victoria. Teachers registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching are exempt, though the exemption no longer applies if the registration is suspended or cancelled, and none of Victoria’s exemptions applies to someone who has failed the Check and been given a WWC Exclusion. A registered teacher doing child-related work other than teaching in a school or early childhood service has to notify Working with Children Check Victoria, using the teacher notification form, within 21 days of starting that work. Even an exempt person needs a check if the organisation they work for requires one.
A change in October 2026: from Monday 19 October 2026, every applicant for a WWC Clearance has to finish the new WWC Child Safety Training, mandatory from that date, and the Social Services Regulator cannot process an application without evidence of it.
Confirming a check
A digital clearance is kept in the Service Victoria app, and scanning the QR code on a person’s digital check with that app shows whether their clearance is current or expired.
Queensland
Blue card · Blue Card Services
Queensland’s page says a blue card is needed by a person paid to teach, coach or tutor children on a commercial basis, whether that is one child or more, and by anyone running a private tutoring business. The same page points to Blue Card Services’ separate page on when a blue card is not needed. A volunteer who receives no payment or other reward does not need one. Nor does someone who provides these services through an education provider (a university, a TAFE or a registered training organisation, for example), though they may still need a blue card under another category. A registered teacher working at a school as part of that role does not need one either.
South Australia
Working with Children Check · the Screening Unit
The Screening Unit obtains a nationally coordinated criminal history check for every applicant. Most applications are completed within 4 weeks, though processing can take longer where there is relevant criminal history. The state’s page also says that, because of delays in the National Police Checking Service, some national criminal history checks may take up to one month longer, and a delayed check does not mean the person has criminal history to disclose. After a clearance is granted, the Unit keeps monitoring the information to make sure the holder remains eligible. Privately arranged babysitters are outside the rule for people parents engage directly. Where a person comes through an organisation or agency, the state’s page suggests asking it for evidence that it has verified its employees’ checks.
Confirming a check
To verify that a person has a current check and is not prohibited from working with children, the state’s page says you will need:
- the person’s full name, exactly as they gave it to the Screening Unit
- their Screening Unit Unique ID, which they must provide by law
- your own name and email address
- the reason for the search.
The search gives only the outcome of the check, and no personal information about the person.
Western Australia
Working with Children Check · Department of Communities
The Department of Communities explains that child-related work has a specific meaning under the Working with Children (Screening) Act 2004: work counts as child-related when its usual duties bring, or are likely to bring, the worker into contact with a child within one or more of the categories the Act sets out, 18 of them available for public use. A check is required where someone has an agreement to do child-related work and no exemption applies; that agreement can be written or unwritten, and the work paid, unpaid or voluntary. A person with a current negative notice or interim negative notice is prohibited from child-related work and cannot apply for a check in the state.
What a check looks at, and raising a concern
Two of the five states’ pages used here describe what a check can draw on. In South Australia, spent convictions do not show on a national police check, but the law allows them to be included in checks of people working or volunteering with children. In Victoria, when someone applies for a WWC Clearance, the Social Services Regulator looks at their criminal history and certain court orders, at relevant findings by some professional disciplinary bodies, and at other information bearing on child safety, allegations of abuse or misconduct towards children among it.
South Australia’s page for parents also covers concerns. If the behaviour of someone working with or caring for a child is worrying, it suggests talking to that person, and telling any organisation or agency that supplied them about the concern and the conversation. Organisations that employ people to work with children must notify the Screening Unit if they take disciplinary or misconduct proceedings against an employee.
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