WWC Connect in Victoria: what changes on 19 October 2026

On 19 October 2026, every Victorian organisation that engages someone in child-related work takes on a second clock. Victoria's WWC Connect asks you to tell the Social Services Regulator (SSR) within 7 days when a paid worker starts or stops child-related work for you, and within 21 days for a volunteer.

If you run a childcare service, you already have a clock. The National Early Childhood Worker Register wants the same start, stop and change events within 14 days. Two systems, two deadlines, triggered by the same moment: someone joins your team.

This guide covers what WWC Connect asks of you, where it and the worker register line up and where they don't, and how to keep both current without double handling.

Verify, connect, record, maintain

The SSR describes the new duty in four steps. They apply to employees of every type (full time, part time, casual), volunteers, contractors, sub-contractors, students on placement and committee members, wherever the work is child-related.

1. Check. Before the person starts, or before you agree to engage them if that comes first, confirm their status with the WWC status checker. Seeing their card is not enough. Keep the result: the checker can email you a copy.
2. Connect. Once you engage them, connect them to your organisation in WWC Connect: within 7 days for a paid worker, 21 days for a volunteer. You'll need their name, address, email, phone number and WWC card or application number.
3. Record. Keep their contact details, your verification evidence, the date they started and the date they stopped. Keep it for at least seven years after they stop.
4. Maintain. Update WWC Connect within the same 7 or 21 days when they stop child-related work, when their name, address, email or phone changes, and when your own organisation's details change.

Every engagement counts. A casual on a term-long pattern is engaged until the end of that term. A casual with no pattern starts and stops with each stint. If someone leaves and comes back, you verify and connect them again.

Existing workers engaged before 19 October don't have to be connected, though the SSR strongly encourages it. Connecting them is what gets you the email when a clearance is suspended, revoked or expires. Either way, if an existing worker changes their name or contact details, or stops child-related work for you, you must record it in WWC Connect.

New applicants do 45 minutes of training first

Also from 19 October, anyone applying for a WWC Check, renewing one, or moving from a volunteer to an employee clearance must complete about 45 minutes of online child safety training as part of the application. Existing clearance holders do it when they next renew. The paid check costs $139.20, a renewal $105.30, and volunteer checks stay free.

For a new starter without a clearance, build that training into the time between offer and first shift, then verify with the status checker once the application shows they can work.

The penalties are real numbers

The SSR's frequently asked questions (October 2026) set them out for the 2026-27 financial year:

Failing to tell the SSR when you engage someone, when they stop, or when required details change is also an offence.

Two registers that don't line up

A Victorian long day care or OSHC service now keeps two lists of its people. They overlap heavily, but they are not the same list, and the differences are where mistakes will happen.

Three gaps to plan for:

• Teachers may sit on one list but not the other. Every early childhood teacher goes on the worker register. In WWC Connect, the SSR says a teacher who relies on their VIT registration to teach in an early childhood service is notified to VIT through its employer portal rather than connected, while a teacher who gives you a WWC Clearance is connected. Record which clearance each teacher relies on, so you know which system to update.
• Agency educators sit on different lists. Your agency relief educator goes on your service's worker register, while the agency connects them in WWC Connect. You still need to know the agency has done it.
• Notifications land where the connection sits. In WWC Connect, the entity that engages the worker connects them and receives the clearance notifications, and for many groups that's head office. The worker register records each service's workforce, whether head office or the service keeps it up to date. If a suspension notice arrives at head office, the service it affects needs to hear the same day.

Outside childcare, WWC Connect stands alone. Disability providers supporting children, OSHC operators outside the NQF, tutoring businesses and sporting clubs all carry the 7 and 21 day duty, with no worker register alongside it.

What we don't know yet

WWC Connect opens on 19 October, so some practical detail is still unpublished:

• The bulk upload template is available only inside the portal. Its exact columns aren't public.
• There is no API. The SSR says direct integration with HR, payroll or volunteer systems isn't part of the first release, so every connection goes through the portal, one at a time or by CSV.
• The portal is built for desktop first. The SSR recommends a computer, and says mobile improvements come later.

We'll update this guide as the portal goes live and the template is published.

How Koora helps you keep both registers current

The work behind both registers is the same: know who started, who stopped and whose details changed, on the day it happens. Kept in a spreadsheet, two deadlines become two chances to miss one. In Koora, each of those moments becomes a task with its deadline and the file you need to finish it.

When someone starts

1. Add them in Koora. Their start date, and whether they're paid or a volunteer, set both clocks: connect them in WWC Connect within 7 days (21 for a volunteer) and add them to the worker register within 14.
2. Review their credentials once. Your AP/NS (approved provider or nominated supervisor) reviews each credential in Koora. That review counts as their sighting for the register, and Koora records who did it and when. For the Working with Children Check, your team checks the clearance on the WWC status checker and records the result in Koora, which keeps the date and who checked it as your evidence.
3. Download, then upload. Koora gives you the upload file for the National Early Childhood Worker Register, and the worker's WWC Connect details, one at a time to copy in or as a file for WWC Connect's bulk upload.
4. Mark it done. Confirm in Koora once they're on the register and connected in WWC Connect. The task clears, and the record shows who did it and when.

When something changes

A renewed credential starts its own 14-day deadline for the register. A name change starts both clocks: 14 days for the register, 7 or 21 for WWC Connect. Koora shows what changed and when it's due. You make the change in the NQA IT System or WWC Connect, then mark it done in Koora.

When someone leaves

Record their last day in Koora as you stop tracking them. That one date flags the departure for the register and shows when the stop is due in WWC Connect (7 days, or 21 for a volunteer). The task stays in front of you until you've recorded it in each system and marked it done.

Every week

Your sighters get one email when someone needs action: who to sight, who's ready to add to the register, and what needs updating.

If you run services in more than one state

• Head office or service. Work the registers service by service, or across every service from head office. The deadlines and the files are the same either way.
• Every state's own step, in one place. Each state's duty shows up as a task: linking a blue card in Queensland, registering an interest in South Australia, connecting in WWC Connect in Victoria. The worker register runs the same way at every childcare service in the country.
• Each state's check, recorded the same way. Your team checks each Working with Children Check against that state's register, whether a public lookup or your own employer portal in NSW and SA, and records the result in Koora with the date and who checked it.

Register Upload, including WWC Connect, is included on every plan for childcare services. Even if you only run services in Victoria, that's one place to see both clocks for every person, instead of two portals and a spreadsheet.

Before 19 October

• Run the status checker across your current team. The SSR suggests it now, so you start from accurate clearance details.
• Collect what connecting needs: address, email and phone for every worker and volunteer, plus their WWC card number or VIT registration.
• Decide who in your organisation holds the Service Victoria business profile, and add delegates so connecting doesn't wait on one person.
• Map your onboarding and offboarding steps so the same event updates both WWC Connect and, for childcare, the worker register.
• Decide whether to connect your existing workforce. If you want clearance notifications for people already on your books, connecting them is the only way to get them.

Related reading

• Working with Children (WWC) Connect, Social Services Regulator, Victorian Government
• National Early Childhood Worker Register, ACECQA
• The National Early Childhood Worker Register explained
• Working With Children Check by state

Frequently asked questions

When does WWC Connect start?

19 October 2026. From that date, anyone you engage to do child-related work in Victoria must be verified with the WWC status checker before they start and connected to your organisation in WWC Connect within 7 days for paid workers or 21 days for volunteers.

Do I have to connect my existing workers?

Connecting workers engaged before 19 October is strongly encouraged rather than required, so you receive notifications if their clearance changes. If an existing worker changes their name or contact details, or stops child-related work for you, you must record that in WWC Connect.

Does WWC Connect replace the National Early Childhood Worker Register?

No. They are separate systems run by separate bodies. WWC Connect is run by Victoria's Social Services Regulator through Service Victoria. The worker register sits in ACECQA's NQA IT System. A Victorian childcare service updates both, on different deadlines: 7 or 21 days for WWC Connect, 14 days for the register.

Do registered early childhood teachers need to be connected?

That turns on which clearance the teacher relies on. A teacher who relies on their Victorian Institute of Teaching registration and is engaged to teach in a school or early childhood service is notified to VIT through its employer portal, and the SSR says you don't connect them in WWC Connect. A teacher who gives you a WWC Clearance is connected like anyone else. If you're unsure which applies, check with the SSR.

Who connects a worker supplied by a labour hire agency?

The agency. It verifies the worker, connects them to the agency in WWC Connect within 7 days of listing them, and keeps placement records. The host service does not connect agency staff, although agency educators still go on the host service's worker register.