WWC Connect now live: what Victorian ECEC providers need to do

New workforce-reporting duties are now in effect, alongside child-safety training requirements for Working with Children clearance applications and renewals.

Victorian early childhood education and care providers must now meet new workforce-reporting duties following the launch of WWC Connect on Monday 19 October 2026. The online service records connections between organisations and the people they engage in child-related work, enabling notifications when a worker’s Victorian Working with Children clearance status changes.

Organisations must notify the Social Services Regulator (SSR) about employees, contractors and volunteers engaged in child-related work by connecting them to their organisation in WWC Connect. These connections will enable notifications when a worker’s Victorian WWC Clearance status changes, helping providers respond when someone must stop working with children.

“Together, these changes will strengthen the safeguards that help organisations make safer decisions about the people they engage to work or volunteer with children,” the Victorian Government states in its published guidance.

Check, connect and keep records

The reforms follow Victoria’s 2025 Rapid Child Safety Review and require providers to follow four steps: check, connect, record and maintain.

Providers must verify an individual’s WWC Clearance through the WWC status checker before work starts or a written or verbal engagement arrangement is made, whichever occurs first. Checking eligibility and connecting a worker are separate steps.

From 19 October, new engagements must be connected within seven days for workers and 21 days for volunteers. Organisations must maintain relevant details and report when engagements end.

Connecting the existing workforce is strongly encouraged. For workers engaged before 19 October, reporting becomes mandatory when their name or contact details change, or their child-related engagement ends.

Required records, including evidence of eligibility verification, must be retained for at least seven years after an engagement ends.

Exemptions and head-office responsibilities

People exempt from holding a WWC Clearance generally do not need connecting, but employers must verify and retain evidence of their exemption.

VIT-registered teachers engaged to teach in schools or early childhood services do not need connecting through WWC Connect. Employers must notify the Victorian Institute of Teaching through its employer portal. Different requirements apply to registered teachers undertaking child-related work outside those teaching roles.

Approved providers must also continue supplying staff and volunteer information, including WWC Check card numbers, to the National Early Childhood Worker Register to comply with the National Law.

Where a central authority or head office engages workers, it is legally responsible for verification and connection. Branches or subsidiaries can manage worker lists, but head office receives clearance-status notifications and must advise affected services of changes.

Providers should review recruitment, onboarding, record-keeping and workforce-management processes, check clearance details, and establish who monitors notifications and communicates changes to service leaders.

Mandatory training accompanies applications and renewals

From 19 October, mandatory WWC child-safety training applies to new applicants, people renewing their clearance and those changing from volunteer to employee clearance.

The approximately 45-minute, self-paced course covers appropriate behaviour, concerning conduct and grooming risks, and responding to child-safety concerns. A paper-based option is available.

Existing clearance holders complete it at their next renewal, then every five years. ECEC qualifications or similar training do not provide an exemption when applying for a WWC Check.

The course establishes baseline knowledge across child-related sectors. It is in addition to sector-specific training required for early childhood teachers, educators, other staff and volunteers under the National Law.

WWC Clearance remains one part of safeguarding. Safer recruitment, supervision and responses to conduct concerns remain essential alongside the reporting system.

Further information, including guidance on exemptions, labour-hire arrangements and existing workers, is available on the Victorian Government’s WWC Connect page. The government advises organisations to revisit the page as implementation FAQs are updated.