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• Employer guidelines
  • Introduction
  • 1. Do you provide child-related employment?
  • 2. Your obligations as an employer
  • 3. Step-by-step guide
  • 4. Relevant employment proceedings
  • 5. Background information
  • 6. Forms
  • Glossary
• Prohibited employment
• Background checks
• FAQs
• Employer-related bodies
• Child-safe child-friendly
• Offender Counsellors
• Commitment to service

 

 

The New South Wales Working With Children program

All employers in NSW, including self employed people, have responsibilities under the Working With Children program.

There are three key strategies of the Working With Children program:

Exclusion of prohibited persons

This strategy focuses on specified, identified offenders and targets the high risk population of known offenders, called prohibited persons.

Under the Commission for Children and Young People Act 1998 prohibited persons are prevented from working in child-related employment. People who have committed serious sex offences against children or adults, or serious physical assault, kidnap or murder offences against children are prohibited persons.

Further information on your obligations in regard to prohibited persons is available at Don't employ prohibited persons in child-related employment.

Working With Children background checks

The Working With Children background check involves checking the relevant records of people who are being recruited to child-related employment to consider whether they indicate any risk to children.

Relevant records are examined to develop an estimate of the risk to children. The result of the estimate of the risk is used by you, the employer, to inform your final recruitment decision.  

For further information on the Working With Children background check, go to When must you do the Working With Children background check?

Together, the Working With Children background check and exclusion of prohibited persons make up the Working With Children Check.

Developing child-safe and child-friendly organisations

This strategy builds your organisation so it is a safe and friendly environment for children and minimises the risk of harm occurring.

Experience shows us that your commitment to risk management helps makes your organisation safer for children, young people and the adults who work there.

By making your organisation safer and more welcoming places for children, you provide the foundation for the other strategies above, and make them more effective.

The Commission for Children and Young People has developed resources to help you put in place policies, procedures and mechanisms for identifying and managing the risks in your organisation, your activities and your staff positions, and for assuring quality.

These resources include recruitment, supervision, training, complaints and disciplinary procedures which address the identified organisational and situational risks. They also include the establishment of participatory mechanisms that guard against risk by creating a culture and environment that promotes openness, makes children feel welcome and encourages children to tell you if something is worrying them.

Further information is available in the Commission for Children and Young People's Child-safe Child-friendly resources.