Digital renewals for NSW Working with Children Checks

The New South Wales Government has launched a new option to renew Working with Children Checks (WWCCs) online, the first of its kind in Australia.

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals are a major component of the approximately 1000 WWCCs renewed each day along with nurses, teachers and other frontline workers. 

The online WWCC renewal is the first major product being rolled out under the NSW Digital ID program and is a significant step in the NSW Government’s journey towards a convenient and secure digital identity for residents.

Online renewals remove the need to share copies of physical documents to prove an identity, using photo verification technology to securely verify a person’s identity and a liveness check to determine if a person is present in front of a mobile phone.

Service NSW will confirm the identity of a person by matching their live facial scan with the reference image associated with them, such as the photo that was taken when a driver license was issued.

To preserve privacy and safeguard against fraud, photos used for verification are immediately and permanently destroyed after the real-time check is completed.

More than a million NSW residents (roughly 14 per cent of the state) do not hold a NSW drivers licence but are holders of government issued photo cards. Those without a drivers licence will be able to use a government issued photo ID to renew their WWCC online.

Renewing a WWCC using digital proof of identity is optional and people can still apply in-person at Service NSW. 

“Being able to renew a Working with Children Check online will save a lot of time for our essential workers and remove the manual process of presenting documents in-person to prove their identity,” Minister for Customer Service and Digital Government Jihad Dib said.

“This is the first significant step towards a digital ID and sets the foundation for renewing other credentials online, helping residents access services faster, easier, and with confidence their personal information is protected.”

Readers should be aware that while NSW is the first state to offer identity verification online, other states have had measures in place to allow ECEC professionals to renew their WWCC online for some time.