SnowBell Project is committed to promote children’s right to play and develop in a safe, secure education and care environment. Child care services have complaints handling policies and procedures, and they recognise that the care and wellbeing of a child is your top priority, and that every concern is important and needs to be addressed.
What Qualifications Do I Need to be a Childcare Worker in Australia?
At a minimum, child care workers in Australia will need to complete a Certificate III in Early Childhood Care and/or Children’s services. If you wish to take on the role of manager or coordinator, you will need to also obtain a Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care. You must have a Certificate III before you can study the Diploma. Courses can be taken through a VET provider, TAFE, or through an on-the-job traineeship.
Qualification options include:
- Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care (CHC30113)
- Certificate IV in School Age Education and Care (CHC40113)
- Diploma of Early Childhood Education and Care (CHC50113)
Child Care Worker Requirements
In addition to your qualification, you will also need to fulfil the following requirements:
- Police checks
- Working with children check
- First aid certificate, updated annually.
- Depending on where you’re applying to work you may also need to register with the Department of Human Services, which can be a long and thorough process.
If you need more information surrounding the rules and regulations in childcare, it’s a good idea to check out the ACECQA (Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority).
If you need more information about police checks, this can be provided by an ACIC accredited provider authorised, like Backy Check from our partner AMICI Tech can emit a police check certificate for this purpose. Backy Check is a 100% online service that has become the main financial support for SnowBell.
How to obtain a working with children check
The following state and territory screening units are the only organisations allowed, under legislation, to conduct Working With Children Checks.
| State/Territory | Screening unit |
|---|---|
| Australian Capital Territory | Access Canberra – Working with Vulnerable People |
| New South Wales | Office of the Children’s Guardian |
| Northern Territory | Northern Territory Government |
| Queensland | Queensland Government Department of Justice and Attorney-General – Blue Card Services |
| South Australia | Department of Human Service |
| Tasmania | Go to Department of Justice |
| Victoria | Justice and Regulation |
| Western Australia | Government of Western Australia |
What Careers Can A Child Care Course Lead To?
A qualification in childcare can open a range of opportunities for anyone looking to expand their horizons beyond a career as a childcare worker.
For example, a child care qualification can lead to a career as:
- Child Carer
- Day Care Worker
- Child Care Centre Manager
- Nanny
- Education Aide
- After school care
- Early Childhood Teacher
- Primary School Teacher
- Home daycare business
What if you have immediate concerns about children’s safety and wellbeing?
If you witness a situation or practice that could potentially harm a child you should take immediate steps to stop this from re-occurring.
You should advise the service’s management about your concerns to ensure they can put in place practices to ensure the children’s health and safety.
Serious issues such as child abuse/neglect, leaving children unsupervised or exposing children to danger should be raised with the relevant state or territory regulatory authority. They have a responsibility to ensure services comply with the National legislation, and will follow up your concern.
Operation Arkstone
It is all about our children safety!
While sometimes qualifications required to work with children are overlook into thinking such a safe country like Australia doesn’t have abuse cases, it is not always truth.
Only this year in the middle of a pandemic, a large-scale Australian Federal Police-led investigation into a network of alleged child sex offenders has identified 46 Australian victims, including 16 from a child care centre. One alleged member of the network, a 27-year-old former child care worker in NSW, has been charged with multiple counts of contact offending.
Police will allege the man used his position as a child care worker, and other deceptive means in his personal life, to gain access to 30 children.
Find more information about this operation here: https://www.afp.gov.au/news-media/media-releases/operation-arkstone-results-828-charges-laid-46-child-victims-identified
Mistakes can be made
The Department of Justice and Community Safety must make decisions about WWCC applications fairly and objectively.
Decisions must be based on whether giving an applicant a WWCC would pose an unjustifiable risk to the safety of children. This can be a fraught process because there are no guarantees that by looking at someone’s past conduct you can determine what they might do into the future.
Mistakes can be made when a decision relies too much on subjective considerations, rather than on expert risk assessments. Whether someone shows ‘insight’ into their offending or if they offended long ago while young, even if serious, might not be a reliable indicator of risk. The Department might also not have access to all relevant material when it makes a decision, and for this we suggest other forms of checks such as references checks or online identity check offered by our partner as well that can somehow support the enrollment of a childcare worker.