Introduction

Each day, children across Australia come into contact with a variety of organisations such as schools, child care centres, hospitals, religious institutions, and sports and recreation clubs. Pre-employment screening for people seeking to engage in child-related work is one measure that contributes to ensuring the safety of children within these organisations. There is no single national framework setting out the requirements for obtaining Working with Children Checks (WWCC) or Police Checks. Instead, all states and territories have legislation providing for child-related employment pre-screening with requirements to be met.

Pre-employment screenings, such as WWCCs and Police Checks, screen for an individual’s criminal records and any reports on their professional conduct. They are designed to help ensure that the right people are chosen to work or volunteer with children. They aim to prevent people from working or volunteering with children if records indicate that they may pose a risk. Research has highlighted the advantages of having structured pre-employment screening processes in place (Child Protection Systems Royal Commission, 2016):

• By basing decisions on standardised points of reference, subjective decision making is minimised.
• The use of structured risk assessment approaches is more reliable and valid than the use of professional judgement alone.
• The assumptions on which the risk assessment models are based can be clearly set out and may be tested.
• Information can be dealt with transparently, and the person affected can put forward information as well as correct it.
• Public awareness of the use of structured risk assessment models may deter possible offenders.

Common questions

This section provides an overview of commonly asked questions relating to pre-employment screening checks for employers, current and prospective employees and volunteers engaging in child-related work in Australia.

• How do Police Checks and child safety screening programs work?
• Who must undergo pre-employment child safety screening?
• Are there other child safety requirements for my job?
• What is the difference between a Police Check and a Working with Children Check?
• Is my pre-employment screening transferable between jurisdictions?
• Is criminal history information shared between Australia and New Zealand?
• What are the limitations of pre-employment screening?
• What role do organisations have in protecting children?

How do Police Checks and child safety screening programs work?

In Australia, approved agencies are only able to check someone’s criminal history or any reports on their professional conduct if they have the informed consent of the individual involved. Police Checks carried out in each state and territory provide a nationwide screening of criminal history information. Throughout this resource, the terminology reflects the language used in each jurisdiction.

Most jurisdictions across Australia offer individual-based certification to engage in child-related work (NSW, NT, Qld, SA,¹ Tas., Vic. and WA); while in the ACT, three types of screening clearance are offered (general, conditional and role-based). All these certifications are valid for a period of time (e.g. three years in WA) and may provide for ongoing monitoring of an individual’s suitability for child-related work. This means that if a relevant criminal offence is committed during the validity of the check, or if the individual is subject to relevant work-related disciplinary procedures, the administering authority may inform employers of the offence and alter or withdraw an individual’s entitlement to work with children. Individuals can carry their certification between positions (but not between jurisdictions – see ‘Is my pre-employment screening transferable between jurisdictions?’) and do not have to undergo repeated screening while their WWCC is valid. As of February 2021, all WWCC have continuous monitoring, where relevant new records can lead to the clearance being cancelled. It should be noted that the Working With Vulnerable People (WWVP) scheme operating in ACT is not a registration, licensing or pre-employment screening regime. Due to this, employers should not use the WWVP registration in place of their own employment checks, such as Police Checks, to ensure employees are suitable for a particular role; and there are many roles that are not regulated activities and therefore do not require a WWVP registration.

Who must undergo pre-employment child safety screening?

As of June 2013, all jurisdictions in Australia have some form of child-related employment pre-screening legislation. These laws make it mandatory for certain individuals engaged in occupations such as education and child care, child protection, child and family welfare, health, entertainment and recreation, and religious instruction to meet screening requirements. There are differences across the states and territories about who is required to undergo screening and how different occupations are identified. If you are unsure whether you need to obtain a WWCC, contact the relevant body in your state or territory. State and territory contact details are provided in the following section, with a summary of requirements for each jurisdiction.

Are there other child safety requirements for my job?

In addition to child-related employment pre-screening legislation, all states and territories have legislation that requires people who wish to register in certain occupations (e.g. teachers, doctors or child care workers) to be screened for criminal offences. This means that even if child-related employment pre-screening legislation did not exist, there are still requirements for adults working in certain occupations to undergo screening (e.g. in the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 (Vic.); Medical Practitioners Registration Act 2001 (Qld); Child Care Act 2001 (Tas.)). Where professional registration requirements include screening, certain persons are exempt from the WWCC (e.g. in Victoria, persons registered under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006).

Organisations may also have developed their own policies that require employees and volunteers to undergo National Police Checks. State and territory police provide criminal history checks to individuals and organisations wishing to obtain Police Checks for employment, voluntary work and occupation-related licensing or registration purposes.

What is the difference between a Police Check and a Working with Children Check?

Police Checks identify and release relevant criminal history information relating to convictions, findings of guilt or pending court proceedings. However, due to spent conviction/non-disclosure legislation and information release policies, there are limitations on the information a Police Check can provide (e.g. the Spent Convictions Scheme stipulates that prior convictions are not to be disclosed where 10 years have passed from the date of the conviction).

Working with Children Checks are more extensive but also more targeted than Police Checks, as the purpose of a WWCC is to make an assessment of the level of risk an individual poses to children’s safety. For example, WWCCs draw together information from various sources but may include a primary focus on certain types of offences (e.g. sexual offences, offences related to the harm or mistreatment of a child). In general, WWCCs give consideration to:

• convictions – whether or not they are considered spent or were committed by a juvenile
• apprehended violence orders and other orders, prohibitions or reporting obligations
• charges (i.e. where a conviction has not been recorded because, e.g., a proceeding has not been heard or finalised by a court, or where charges have been dismissed or withdrawn)
• relevant allegations or police investigations involving the individual
• relevant employment proceedings and disciplinary information from professional organisations (e.g. organisations associated with teachers, child care service providers, foster carers and health practitioners).

Is my pre-employment screening transferable between jurisdictions?

Working with Children Checks and Working With Vulnerable People (WWVP) checks are not transferable between states and territories. Organisations or individuals that work or volunteer with children across state or territory boundaries need to ensure that they have obtained appropriate clearance checks and screenings for each separate jurisdiction. A nationally consistent approach to pre-employment screenings was highlighted as a priority under the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009–2020. However, the 2015 Royal Commission report noted that progress in achieving greater consistency across jurisdictions has been ‘slow and inadequate’ due to disagreements over implementation and entrenched local practices and definitions (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015, p. 47).

A WWCC Working Group has been formed to inform the national alignment. They have noted that a national approach to legislation will not necessarily protect all children and that such screening practices and processes must sit in a broader organisational environment determined to ensure the safety of children (Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 2011).

Exemptions for visitors: In 2012, state and territory governments agreed on a standard exemption that allows people to work interstate for a brief period of time; namely, up to 30 days in a 12-month period, without obtaining a WWCC in the new location (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015).

Is criminal history information shared between Australia and New Zealand?

In February 2015, Australia and New Zealand signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to give employers greater trans-Tasman access to individual criminal history checks for employment, training and registration purposes. Under the MoU, eligible New Zealand agencies have the ability to make requests through New Zealand Police for Australian criminal information from the Australian Crime Commission. Similarly, eligible Australian agencies may request criminal history information from New Zealand Police.

As with existing criminal-record checking arrangements, approved agencies are only able to check someone’s criminal history if they have the informed consent of the individual involved.

What are the limitations of pre-employment screening?

Policy and legislation that provide for the pre-employment screening of adults who work or volunteer in child-related organisations are important for creating and maintaining child-safe organisations. However, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse has found the schemes operating in Australia to be inconsistent and complex. The Royal Commission report highlights several issues including inadequate information sharing and monitoring of WWCCs across jurisdictions; the non-transferability of WWCCs across jurisdictions; and the inability of screening agencies to access WWCC decisions in other jurisdictions (Commonwealth of Australia, 2015).

In the 2016 South Australian Royal Commission report The Life They Deserve, Commissioner Nyland highlighted that pre-employment screening is not intended to be a fail-safe measure in its own right: ‘gaining clearance does not mean that a person has been deemed safe or suitable to work with children – it simply means there is no available history to suggest they pose a threat’ (Child Protection Systems Royal Commission, 2016, p. 537).

What role do organisations have in protecting children?

Organisations play an important role in protecting children, beyond adhering to pre-employment screening regulations. WWCCs and Police Checks should be implemented in conjunction with other measures to minimise the risk to children’s safety. These additional measures may include pre-employment interviews, thorough reference checks, policy development for child-safe environments, and robust accountability frameworks for responding to allegations.

In 2019, the Australian Human Rights Commission released the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations in response to the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (Commonwealth of Australia, 2017). These principles are considered fundamental in making an organisation safe and are intended to ensure a nationally consistent approach for all organisations that work or come into contact with children. All organisations working with or coming into contact with children are encouraged to become a child safe organisation (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2018). (For more information on child safe organisations and links to resources for organisations, see the CFCA short article:  Child safe organisations: Information for organisations on how to keep children safe .) WWCCs and Police Checks should be implemented in conjunction with these principles.

In 2020, the Australian National Office for Child Safety released the second edition of the Commonwealth Child Safe Framework. This framework sets out minimum standards for Commonwealth entities to create and maintain behaviours and practices that are safe for children. The framework includes four key requirements and guidance for implementation: conducting an annual risk assessment and mitigation; training and compliance with the framework and relevant legislation (including with WWCC/WWVP legislation); adopting and implementing the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations; and publishing an annual statement of compliance.

State and territory requirements

Across the six jurisdictions that carry out WWCCs (NSW, NT, Qld, SA, Vic., and WA) and the two that carry out WWVP checks (ACT and Tas.), there are differences in what information is considered and what sources of information are used. This section provides an overview for each jurisdiction of the types of screening programs that are in place, what records are checked, and who is required to undergo screening.

Conclusion

Screening helps to prevent people with a known history of violent and abusive behaviour from gaining access to children through organisations, employment or volunteering. However, screening alone is not sufficient (e.g. it is limited to identifying known perpetrators) and needs to be coupled with interviews, thorough reference checks, policy development for child-safe environments, and robust accountability frameworks for responding to allegations.

References

• Australian Human Rights Commission. (2018). National Principles for Child Safe Organisations. Sydney: AHRC.
• Child Protection Systems Royal Commission. (2016). The life they deserve: Child Protection Systems Royal Commission report. Adelaide: Government of South Australia.
• Commonwealth of Australia. (2015). Working with Children Checks Report. Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
• Commonwealth of Australia. (2017). Making Institutions Child Safe Report. Sydney: Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
• Commonwealth of Australia. (2020). Commonwealth Child Safe Framework (2nd edition). Canberra: National Office for Child Safety.
• Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. (2011). Position paper: Toward a nationally consistent approach to Working with Children Checks. Canberra: Department of Social Services. Retrieved from www.dss.gov.au/our-responsibilities/families-and-children/publications-articles/a-nationally-consistent-approach-to-working-with-children-checks-2011