National working with children checks will ensure a safer early learning sector 

Australia’s peak body for early learning (childcare) supports a national Working with Children Check system across Australia, ensuring those who do not meet the standards of one state cannot move to another to work with children. 

Decided at the meeting of Attorneys-General, the first step will be a continuous monitoring and  national information sharing capability. This is something that the Australian Childcare Alliance has been advocating for and strongly supports. 

We also support measures to strengthen the criteria for working with children and encourage working with children checks to be expended to roles working with vulnerable people. 

The Australian Childcare Alliance (ACA) President, Mr Paul Mondo, said aligning the working with children checks across the country had been a long-standing priority for the Australian Childcare Alliance and follows long-standing recommendations to create a truly national system of working with children checks that helps protect children. 

“The need for a consistent national Working with Children check is urgently needed and will help protect children from people we do not want working in our sector. 

“This is an important first step and closing the loopholes that currently exist. This step alone however requires further commitments including the development of a national register for early childhood educators and teachers that provides employers with a complete picture of any prospective employee when deciding who they employ. We cannot delay reforms that keep kids safe from people who find loopholes and ways to access children in early learning settings.”