Working With Children Checks: a guide for club volunteer coordinators

If your club runs junior teams, chances are a good number of your coaches, managers and volunteers spend time around children. Making sure the right people hold a valid clearance to do so is one of the most important jobs a volunteer coordinator has — and one of the easiest to lose track of. This is a plain-English overview of what these checks are, who typically needs one, and how to keep on top of them.

What is a Working With Children Check?

A Working With Children Check is a screening process designed to help keep children safe by assessing whether a person is suitable to work or volunteer in child-related roles. It's not the same as a general police check — it's a specific, ongoing form of screening focused on child safety.

Crucially, there is no single national scheme. Each state and territory runs its own, with its own name, rules and card. Depending on where your club is based, you may hear it called a Working With Children Check, a Blue Card (in Queensland), an Ochre Card (in the Northern Territory), or Registration to Work with Vulnerable People (in Tasmania), among others. Because the schemes differ, the safest starting point is always your own state or territory's screening authority.

For clubs, this matters on three fronts: it's about protecting the children in your care first and foremost, it can be a legal obligation, and getting it wrong can do real damage to a club's reputation and the trust families place in you.

Who typically needs one at a club?

As a general guide, people in child-related roles at a community club are the ones most likely to need a valid check. That commonly includes:

• Coaches and assistant coaches working with junior teams
• Team managers and other officials in regular contact with children
• Volunteers in roles that involve supervising or caring for young players

That said, the exact rules — including who is required to have a check, and any exemptions (for example, some parents volunteering for their own child's team, or under-18 volunteers) — vary by state and territory and by the specific role. Don't assume a rule you've heard from another club or another state applies to yours. Check the requirements for your location, and confirm your sport's governing body doesn't set its own additional standards.

The coordinator's job, step by step

Whoever manages volunteers and officials at your club is usually the person keeping this on track. In practice, the role tends to come down to a handful of habits done consistently:

• Collect and verify before anyone starts. Sight the check and confirm it's valid through the appropriate verification process for your state or territory — don't simply take someone's word that they "have one somewhere".
• Record the card number and expiry date. The expiry date is the detail people most often forget, and it's the one that matters most for staying current.
• Set renewal reminders. Give yourself and the volunteer enough notice before a check lapses so there's time to renew without a gap in coverage.
• Re-verify when checks lapse or change. A cleared status isn't permanent — treat renewals as seriously as the first check.
• Keep records securely and privately. These are sensitive personal details. Store them so only the people who genuinely need them can see them, and no further.

Fees, minimum ages, processing times and how long a check stays valid all vary by state and territory, so build a little buffer into your timing and confirm the specifics with your local screening authority rather than assuming a fixed period.

Building a simple system

Most compliance headaches at clubs come not from ill intent but from information scattered across text messages, inboxes and memory. A simple, deliberate system fixes most of that. You really only need three things:

• A central register. One place that lists everyone in a child-related role and whether they're cleared — not five different spreadsheets held by five different people.
• Expiry tracking. A reliable way to see, at a glance, whose check is due to expire soon, so renewals happen ahead of time.
• Clear role records. A record of who is cleared for which role, so it's obvious who is signed off to coach or manage a junior team this season.

The goal is that, at any moment, you can answer "is everyone working with our juniors currently cleared?" without a scramble. If your answer today would involve chasing people, that's the gap worth closing.

Where a club platform can help

A club platform won't do your compliance for you — the checking, verifying and record-keeping decisions remain yours — but it can make the underlying admin far tidier. In ClubApp, the Qualifications Register is built for exactly this:

• One register for every clearance. Keep Working With Children Checks — along with RSA, First Aid and coaching accreditations — in one place, each with its details, expiry date and the uploaded document.
• Members upload their own; you verify. People add their clearance from the app and a club admin marks it verified, so the register stays current without one coordinator chasing everyone.
• Expiry reminders. Every clearance carries an expiry date and the app reminds people before theirs lapses — renewals happen ahead of time, not after a gap.
• Role-gating. A volunteer role can require a current clearance, warning or blocking anyone who doesn't hold one, so nobody's rostered into a child-related role without a valid check.
• Privacy built in. Sensitive details are minimised by default and any full view of a member's record is logged in an audit trail — which matters when you're handling personal information.

Used alongside a proper verification process, that gives you an organised, privacy-conscious foundation for your register — while the responsibility for confirming and maintaining valid checks stays with the club. You can also collect consents and codes of conduct with Forms.

Common questions

Who needs a Working With Children Check at a community club?
It depends on your state or territory, but checks generally apply to adults in child-related roles — coaches, team managers and officials working with juniors — while some volunteers, such as a parent helping with their own child's team, may be exempt. The rules and exemptions vary, so confirm what applies to your location and your sport.

How often does a check need renewing?
A check is valid for a set period that varies by state or territory, after which it must be renewed. Record each person's expiry date and renew ahead of time so there's no gap in coverage.

How do we keep track of every volunteer's check?
Keep one central register rather than scattered spreadsheets — a single place listing who holds a current clearance for which role, with expiry dates you can see at a glance. ClubApp's Qualifications Register is built for exactly this.

Does ClubApp verify the checks for us?
No — verifying a check through your state's process stays the club's responsibility. ClubApp gives volunteers a place to upload their clearance, lets an admin mark it verified, reminds everyone before expiry, and can require a current clearance for a role — but the verification decision is yours.