Family day care screening: educators and household members

Family day care is different from centre based childcare in one important way: the workplace is someone's home. That changes who needs to be screened. It is not only the educator who is assessed. Every adult who lives at the residence where care is delivered comes into scope, because they share the same space as the children in care.

This guide explains how screening works for family day care, what the Certificate III rule means since 1 July 2023, and where the responsibility sits between the educator, the household and the approved provider.

Who needs to be screened

In family day care, screening covers more people than most other care settings:

• The educator who delivers the care.
• Any educator assistant engaged to help with the care.
• Every person aged 18 and over who resides at the family day care residence. This is the part people often miss. Partners, adult children, parents, housemates and any other adult living at the home all need a current Working With Children Check.

The approved provider must take reasonable steps to ensure each of these people is a fit and proper person to be in the company of children. Under the Education and Care Services National Regulations, part of the National Quality Framework, that assessment happens when the person commences and is reviewed regularly afterwards, typically each year around the anniversary date.

The Working With Children Check covers police history

The Working With Children Check is the core screening requirement for everyone in scope. It is administered by each state and territory under different names, for example the Working with Children Check in New South Wales, the Blue Card in Queensland, and the Working with Children Check or Victorian Institute of Teaching registration in Victoria.

National police history is built into that Check. The screening body runs the criminal history component as part of issuing and monitoring the clearance. That means:

• You do not arrange a separate, standalone police check for an educator or a household member on top of a current Working With Children Check.
• The Check is an ongoing clearance, not a one off snapshot. The screening authority monitors holders against new records and can suspend or cancel a clearance.
• Each adult is responsible for renewing their own Check before it expires. Validity runs between three and five years depending on the state, for example five years in New South Wales and Victoria, but three years for the Blue Card in Queensland.

If you want the state by state detail on names, validity periods and portability, see Working With Children Check by state.

The Certificate III rule since 1 July 2023

Qualifications for family day care educators changed under the National Quality Framework:

• From 1 July 2023, new family day care educators must hold an approved Certificate III level qualification or higher before commencing. Starting while only "actively working towards" a qualification is no longer permitted for new educators.
• Existing educators engaged before that date were given until 1 July 2024 to complete an approved qualification.
• Where an existing educator did not finish in time, the approved provider could apply to the regulatory authority for a waiver, which may be granted in limited circumstances with reasonable justification.

For the qualification detail and how Certificate III sits alongside higher childcare qualifications, see early childhood educator qualifications.

What sits alongside the Check and the qualification

The Working With Children Check and the Certificate III are not the whole list. A family day care educator, like any educator in an NQF-regulated service, also needs:

• Child protection training in two layers: the federal Foundations of Child Safety training that applies to everyone, plus a state-specific course on top where one applies, for example VIC PROTECT (Early Childhood Sector) in Victoria or Keeping Children and Young People Safe in the ACT. The state training is in addition to the federal training, not instead of it.
• Current first aid: in one of the two accepted combinations, either First Aid (HLTAID011) plus CPR (HLTAID009) plus Anaphylaxis Management and Emergency Asthma Management, or First Aid for Education and Care (HLTAID012) plus CPR (HLTAID009). CPR must be refreshed annually.

These apply to the educator who delivers care. The household members covered above need a Working With Children Check and a fit and proper assessment, not the training and first aid an educator holds.

How the responsibilities split

Family day care screening involves three parties, and it helps to be clear on who does what:

• The educator holds a current Working With Children Check, an approved qualification, and keeps the provider informed about who lives at the residence.
• Each adult household member holds their own current Working With Children Check and renews it on time.
• The approved provider assesses each educator, assistant and resident as fit and proper, sights the evidence, keeps the records, and reviews them on the required cycle. The legal obligation to decide who can be engaged sits with the provider.

The register dimension matters too. Educators are recorded in the national early childhood worker register, and uploads of register evidence go to the relevant national system rather than a state portal. For the register itself, see the national early childhood worker register explained.

Why family day care records are easy to lose track of

The household scope is what makes family day care records harder to keep clean than a single centre:

• The list of people to screen changes when someone moves in or out, so it is never fixed.
• Each Check expires on its own date, so one home can have several clearances all renewing at different times.
• A regular fit and proper review is required, so a clearance that was current last year is not evidence that it is current today.

Compliance here is current state only. A record showing a clearance was valid at the last review does not prove it is valid right now, which is exactly why ongoing monitoring matters more than a one off file note.

Authoritative sources

• Qualifications for family day care services (ACECQA)
• National Quality Framework (ACECQA)
• Working With Children Check reform (Department of Social Services)
• National Early Childhood Worker Register (ACECQA)

Where Koora fits

Koora gives a family day care educator a Career Passport: a portable, checked record of their qualification, Working With Children Check, child protection training, first aid and other credentials they can carry between coordination units and roles. Working With Children Checks are verified by Koora against the public state lookup in Victoria, Queensland, WA, Tasmania and the NT. NSW and SA checks, and the ACT Working with Vulnerable People registration, are reviewed from the uploaded document. Qualifications, child protection training and first aid records have no register to query, so the compliance engine checks them against the requirements for the role, and a person reviews the documents themselves once an educator shares their passport with a provider, or across the provider's own records through the Crew service.

For approved providers, Koora checks the credentials and tracks their currency so you can see where each educator stands when a report is run. In Victoria, Queensland, WA, Tasmania and the NT the Check is verified against the public state lookup when it is collected (NSW and SA checks are reviewed from the document), so a suspension part-way through a clearance reaches you through the scheme notifying you as the linked employer, or through your own re-check. It does not remove your duty to sight evidence, assess each adult at the residence as fit and proper, and decide who can be engaged. That responsibility stays with you. What Koora removes is the spreadsheet guesswork about whose Check has lapsed and whose review is due.

Frequently asked questions

Does everyone living in a family day care home need a Working With Children Check?

Yes. Every person aged 18 and over who resides at the family day care residence needs a current Working With Children Check, not just the educator. This includes partners, adult children, housemates and other relatives. The approved provider must assess each resident as a fit and proper person on commencement and review them regularly.

Do family day care educators need a qualification before they start?

Since 1 July 2023, new family day care educators must hold an approved Certificate III level qualification or higher before commencing. They can no longer start while only working towards it. Existing educators were given until 1 July 2024 to finish an approved qualification, with provider waivers available in limited circumstances.

Is a separate police check needed on top of the Working With Children Check?

No. National police history is built into the Working With Children Check assessment in every state and territory. You do not arrange a standalone police check for the educator or household members on top of a current Check. Listing a police check separately just duplicates work the Check already covers.