Each year the Office of the Children’s Guardian (OCG) Compliance Team for Child Safe Organisations undertakes audits of the work sectors phasing in that year according to the legislated schedule for compliance with the Working With Children Check (WWCC).
This year they are auditing Clubs or other bodies work sector, which includes all sports, community groups, local councils, recreation, culture, and dance activities. There are over 6,000 employer registrations in this work sector.
For their audit work they have taken a dual approach this year. Apart from registering as an employer, the second and very important step for an employer to do is to verify online their employees’ WWCC status.
This links employers and employees in their system and should they receive a Police alert and undertake a risk assessment and bar an employee, they then know the employer to contact to make sure that person is removed from working with children.
Although it is a legal requirement unfortunately this step is where many employers fall down. So the first part of OCG’s audit program is to contact these employers and obtain their verification compliance. This is an ongoing job because employers are registering all the time.
The second part of their audit work involves contacting peak organisations, such as Golf NSW, to find out how we manage our WWCC obligations, e.g. state, district, club level or other professional capacity.
OCG are gradually identifying and contacting all sport peaks and have started with football codes and some other sports such as netball.
Whichever level, they ask for a list of members in child-related work and match this list to the registrations in their system and then contact those not registered.
We have also noted that when contacting some golf clubs they have said the WWCC is the responsibility of the golf professional and not the club. To know that all golf professionals coaching children are compliant with the WWCC, OCG would need a list of their full names and date of birth. It is likely they would contact the PGA in MyGolf Programs to obtain such a list rather than approach golf clubs per se.
However, many PGAs do not list who they are aligned with or are employed with (e.g. Golf Club Name). They are currently reviewing a list of golf clubs with the names “golf” in their name that are registered with OCG for the WWCC.
We have noticed that your club has junior members, however are not listed in the register of Child Safe Organisations. Employers, including sports clubs and associations, are required to verify their staff and volunteers who work with children. All WWCCs can be verified through the new online system. This is a very simple process.
The first step is to Register your organisation by following the steps in the attached link below. Once this is complete, you can verify a staff or volunteer member by entering their WWCC or APP (WWCC Application) number, family name and birthdate.
FIRST: REGISTER YOUR ORGANISATION
Step 1: Go to the OCG website http://www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/
Step 2: Click on the ‘Working with children’s check’ icon at the top of the page.
Step 3: Go to ‘For Employers’ section and click on ‘Register’ (or follow the link below)
http://www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/working-with-children/working-with-children-check/apply/apply
Step 4: Go to ‘Employer registration’ and click on ‘Register as an employer’ (This is where you will find the registration form.)
Step 5: Fill in your organisations details
Step 6: Submit.
SECOND: VERIFY YOUR EMPLOYEE (PAID/VOLUNTEER)
Step 7: Verify each employee by following the same steps except at step 4- Click on ‘Employee log in and verify’ and it will look like the image below. Enter the Family Name, Birthdate and WWCC # or Application number.
For any queries please contact the Office of the Children’s Guardian on: 8219 3600 or
email: kids@kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au
http://www.golfnsw.org/site/_content/document/00031700-source.pdf
A list of upcoming training sessions is also available in the attached document.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me for further information or if you have any issues accessing this document.
http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/649201/34435_ASC_Integrity_Guidelines_for_NSO_Board_Directors_FA.pdf