Working with Children Check 2026: How to Apply in Each State, Step by Step

From the Rostery team in Sydney. This walkthrough was first published on our blog as Working with Children Check 2026: how to apply in every state, with fees, steps and processing times.

Australia doesn't have one Working with Children Check. It has eight. Each state and territory runs its own scheme, under its own law and often under its own name, and a check from one place doesn't cover work in another. For paid work in 2026-27 the fee runs from $87 in Western Australia to $163 in the ACT. A check lasts five years in most places, three in Queensland and WA, and only two in the Northern Territory.

This post is the practical version: what you need in your hand before you start, the order of the steps in each state, the fee, and whether you can start work while you wait. It's written for support workers, coordinators and the small NDIS and aged-care providers who hire them.

General information only, not legal advice. Fees change every 1 July and rules change often, so confirm with the state agency before you apply.

The eight checks at a glance

Where	Name	Paid work fee	Lasts
NSW	Working with Children Check	$112	5 years
Victoria	Working with Children Check	$139.20	5 years
Queensland	Blue card	$108.30	3 years
Western Australia	Working with Children Check	$87	3 years
South Australia	Working with Children Check	$145	5 years
Tasmania	Registration to Work with Vulnerable People	$137.20	5 years
ACT	Working with Vulnerable People	$163	5 years
Northern Territory	Ochre Card	$89	2 years

Volunteers pay nothing except in WA ($11) and the NT ($8). A volunteer check never covers paid work in any state.

Before you start: who needs one

You need a check if contact with children under 18 is a normal part of your work or volunteering, not something incidental, in a setting your state lists. Disability support for children is on those lists. NSW names helping children with disability without other adults supervising. Queensland names disability services and NDIS supports to a child. South Australia lists disability services for children and any close personal contact with a child with a disability. Tasmania and the ACT treat NDIS work itself as a regulated activity.

The minimum age to apply varies too: 14 in South Australia, up to 18 in NSW.

If you're an NDIS worker with participants under 18, expect to need two checks: the national NDIS Worker Screening Check and your state's child check. We've covered the NDIS side in our NDIS Worker Screening Check guide for every state.

New South Wales

Run by the Office of the Children's Guardian (OCG), with ID checks at Service NSW.

What to have ready: four original identity documents (one commencement of identity, one primary and two secondary, with at least one showing your photo and signature), every name you've ever used, your address, an email and a phone number. A digital NSW driver licence is fine. Photocopies and laminated documents aren't.

Steps:

1. Complete the online application on the OCG site. You'll get an application (APP) number by email.
2. Within 28 days, take the APP number, your ID and the $112 fee (paid workers only) to a Service NSW centre.
3. The OCG checks national criminal history and workplace misconduct records. Your clearance comes by email as a WWC number. There's no card, but you can add it to the Service NSW app.
4. Give your employer your APP number first, then your WWC number, full name and date of birth.

Waiting: police results can take up to 4 weeks. The law lets you start child-related work once you have an APP number, but NSW Health, early childhood services and the Department of Education want a clearance first.

Renewing: up to 3 months before expiry, online with face verification or at Service NSW. Volunteers moving to paid work have 30 days to upgrade.

Victoria

Run by the Social Services Regulator (SSR), with applications through Service Victoria.

New from 19 October 2026: You must first finish free WWC Child Safety Training, an online course of about 45 minutes in six modules. You then have 30 days to lodge your application.

Steps:

1. Complete the training.
2. Apply online through Service Victoria. Verify your identity with one Group A document (Australian driver licence, learner permit or Medicare card) and one Group B document (Australian passport, birth certificate, foreign passport with visa, ImmiCard or citizenship certificate). Without both, verify in person at Australia Post.
3. Pay the employee fee of $139.20. Answer any request for information within 28 days or the application is withdrawn.
4. Your card shows your photo, number, type (E for employee, V for volunteer) and expiry, and can live in the Service Vic app.

Waiting: a clean record may take only days. Applications with history usually take 3 to 12 weeks, and the SSR warns some take more than six months. Most people can start once they've applied, except in services covered by the Children's Services Regulations 2020 or the Education and Care Services National Law.

Renewing: online, from six months before expiry to three months after. The renewal fee for an employee clearance is $105.30.

Queensland

Run by Blue Card Services in the Department of Justice. The check is the blue card.

Steps:

1. Visit a Department of Transport and Main Roads customer service centre to get a Customer Reference Number and photo. It's free. Interstate, overseas and remote applicants have a remote option.
2. Register online and apply through the applicant portal, using the same email, mobile and date of birth as your TMR record.
3. Pay $108.30 for paid work, or have your employer pay. If you also need a yellow card (NDIS worker screening), one combined application covers both and they expire on the same day.
4. Wait for the approval notice. The physical card can take up to 21 days to arrive.

Waiting: most applications with no criminal history are approved within 5 business days. But the rule is "No Card. No Link. No Start": you can't begin regulated work until you're approved.

Handy saving: if you already hold a disability worker screening clearance, a blue card costs $15.

Western Australia

Run by the WWC Screening Unit, Department of Communities.

Steps:

1. Pick up the form at an authorised Australia Post outlet. Your organisation fills in its part (self-employed people skip this).
2. Lodge it in person at Australia Post with your ID and the fee: $87 paid, $11 volunteer.
3. Keep the receipt. In most cases it lets you start or keep doing child-related work while you wait.
4. Your card is emailed and posted, and the number can be checked online before it arrives.

WA doesn't publish a processing time. The card lasts 3 years.

South Australia

Run by the Screening Unit, Department of Human Services, through the Screening SA portal.

Steps:

1. Create a Screening SA account with your own email, or sign in with an Australian Government Digital ID. An employer can start the application for you, and you then have 28 days to finish it.
2. Verify your identity online with a selfie, a photo ID and a second document. You'll need a smartphone.
3. Pay online by credit card: $145 for employees, $73.50 for tertiary students. Fees aren't refunded.
4. There's no card. The outcome is emailed, but your employer must verify it through its own portal.

Waiting: most are done within 4 weeks. New workers can't start in a prescribed position until the employer has verified the check.

Tasmania

Run by the RWVP Scheme in the Department of Justice, with ID checks at Service Tasmania.

Steps:

1. Apply online. Have 5 years of addresses, any offence history, family violence or child protection orders, and each employer's details handy.
2. Within 21 days, take three current ID documents to Service Tasmania, have your photo taken and pay if you didn't pay online.
3. Choose your class carefully. NDIS work needs the Employment/Volunteer class with an NDIS Worker Screening Check added, even if you're volunteering. That addition costs $113.68.

Waiting: allow up to 6 weeks. You can start early only if your employer has agreed to engage you, you named them, you're supervised at all times by an RWVP holder and the employer has a risk management plan.

ACT

Run by Access Canberra. The check is the Working with Vulnerable People (WWVP) registration.

Steps:

1. Sign in to an ACT Government Digital Account, link the WWVP service and apply online.
2. Pay $163 for paid work (volunteering only is free).
3. Verify your identity with four documents, in person at a Service Centre or by post with certified copies, two passport photos and a photo of you holding your ID.
4. Your card is posted. It shows whether you're unrestricted or restricted, and whether NDIS activities are covered.

Waiting: the average is 8 weeks. Early starts are only for the employer named in the application, with its agreement, under constant supervision by a WWVP holder.

Northern Territory

Run by SAFE NT (NT Police) and the NT Screening Authority. The check is the Ochre Card.

Steps:

1. Apply online through Territory Services in one sitting, or in person, or by mail. Paper forms changed on 1 September 2026 and old ones are returned.
2. Provide 100 points of ID including at least one Category A document.
3. Pay $89 for paid work (including student placements) or $8 for volunteering.

Waiting: no published processing time, and you can't start until you're cleared unless your employer gets a limited exemption for you. The card lasts only 2 years, and a renewal can take as long as a first application.

What it costs, side by side

Most states let an employer pay the fee. Fees aren't refunded if you apply twice, choose paid by mistake or withdraw. Upgrading a volunteer check to paid work also costs in several places: $139.20 in Victoria, $108.30 in Queensland, $113.68 in Tasmania, and a share of $145 in SA depending on the time left on your check.

Can you start before you're cleared?

The short version:

• NSW, Victoria and WA: most people can once they've applied.
• Tasmania and the ACT: only under constant supervision.
• NT: only with an employer exemption.
• Queensland and SA: not until cleared.

Whatever the law allows, your employer can still insist on a full clearance first.

For employers: what to keep on file

Every state expects you to check the worker's status before they start, and most expect you to do it on the agency's own system. In NSW and SA, sighting an email or a card isn't enough. For each worker, record their name, date of birth, check number, whether it's a paid or volunteer check, the expiry date and the date you verified it. Victoria requires records to be kept for at least seven years.

If you're getting ready for registration, these records sit alongside everything else in our guide to becoming a registered NDIS provider in 2026. We also put together a checklist on dev.to of the audit evidence for each Practice Standard area that pairs well with this.

Tracking expiry dates

With three different validity periods in play, an expiry date is easy to lose. In Rostery, staff upload their check to their profile and Rostery reads the type, number, issuer and expiry date. Where a card only shows an issue date, it works out expiry from that state's validity period, and alerts go out before a check lapses. More on document expiry tracking.

There's also a set of free NDIS tools on our site, including a price guide search and shift price calculator.

Read the full guide

The original post has every fee table, the employer rules for each state, the 2025 to 2027 changes, the interstate exemptions and a list of official sources: Working with Children Check 2026 in every state.

The Rostery team, Sydney