Working with children checks

Working with children checks

Maccabi is committed to striving to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children, young people and vulnerable people throughout our organisation, by implementing mechanisms that aim to protect all children and vulnerable people accessing Maccabi services, events and activities.

Each State and Territory in Australia has laws about safeguarding children. While they vary slightly, it’s important to ensure you are familiar with the requirements in your State.

The table below has the links to each State’s screening unit.

State Name of the check Link to Government Screening Unit
New South Wales Working with children check NSW Office of the Children’s Guardian
Victoria Working with children check Department of Justice and Regulation, Working with Children Check Unit
Western Australia Working with children check Department for Child Protection & Family Support
Queensland Blue Card Check Blue Card Services

 

Across all the States, the laws set out the individual obligations. Working With Children Check (WWCC) applies to adults who work with children or are engaged in volunteer roles involving children (under 18 years of age). It is the responsibility of the individual to keep their WWCC details up to date including the renewal.

This check plays a crucial part in safeguarding children involved in Maccabi and in providing a safe and child friendly environment.  It is an offence for a person to carry out child-related work without holding a current WWCC.

Legal Responsibilities: Maccabi, your Club, and you

All Maccabi clubs/events must comply with all relevant child safeguarding legislation. The clubs (or other Maccabi entity responsible for events) is legally responsible to ensure that any paid staff member or volunteer involved in child related work i.e. coach, team manager or committee member has a cleared verification WWCC.

Solely accepting someone’s WWCC number is legally not sufficient for an organisation to be compliant. It is the responsibility of the organisation to complete the verification and keep all the records.

At the beginning of each season the clubs must submit the name and contact details of the Club’s Integrity Officer and Compliance Officer. These positions can be the same person but need to be a committee member that does not hold another position on the committee.  Details can be emailed to the Maccabi Australia National Integrity Manager integritymanager@maccabi.com.au

The verification process for each State can be found here: