Safety checks
Blue card in Queensland: what babysitters and parents need to know
A paid babysitter in Queensland needs a blue card. What it costs, how to apply, and how a parent checks a card with the free Blue Card Services validator.
Queensland does not exempt private babysitting the way New South Wales and Victoria do: a babysitter a family pays directly needs a blue card, which is Queensland's Working with Children Check. The sitter's half of this is getting one, the parent's half is reading the card someone hands them. It is not legal advice.
Who needs a blue card in Queensland
Blue Card Services lists childcare services as babysitting, nanny services and au pair services. Its definition of childcare has three parts: caring for a child who is not your own, for payment or another reward, as part of a service that regularly cares for children. Its list of who needs a card settles the private case, naming anyone who works as a babysitter, nanny or au pair, and anyone who looks after children while parents or carers are away. An unpaid favour is a private arrangement, and so is a relative minding a child.
Age does not change that. Under-18s need no blue card to volunteer with children but do need one if they are paid to work with them, and Queensland's own worked example is a 15-year-old paid to babysit. Anyone running a babysitting service or a nanny agency needs one as the operator as well.
What a blue card costs: paid work or volunteer
Paid work
For anyone paid to babysit or nanny.
- $108.30, from 1 July 2026
- Three years, and renewal costs the same
- Replacement card $16.35
Volunteer
For unpaid work only.
- Free
- You must be linked to an organisation before you apply
- Start paid work and you must transfer it to a paid card
A free card someone picked up through a sports club does not cover a paid Saturday night, and the transfer is a separate application rather than an edit. Queensland registered teachers and sworn police hold an exemption card instead, free, and valid for as long as the registration is.
How to apply for a blue card, and how long it takes
Applications go through the online applicant portal or a paper form. You need a customer reference number from the Department of Transport and Main Roads, and the card carries the photo already on that record. If that photo is more than six years and eleven months old, TMR takes a new one first.
Most applications are approved within five business days where there is no criminal history and nothing else to look at, and anything that needs a closer look takes longer. The card is posted after that and can take up to 21 days to arrive, but you can start work as soon as the approval notice does. A sitter can list a profile while the application is still with Blue Card Services; the number is asked for after you are listed.
How a parent checks a babysitter's blue card
Blue Card Services publishes a free validator. It wants no account, no date of birth and no registration, and Queensland publishes no permission rule the way Victoria does. It is still their card, so ask first.
Ask for these in one message
- Their name exactly as it appears on the card
- The seven-digit card number
- The issue number printed beside it, one or two digits
- The expiry date on the card
All four have to match. The expiry date is something you type in rather than something the tool gives back, so a wrong date reads the same as a card that was never valid. Ask them to read it off the card rather than from memory.
What each result means
The card validates
Name, number, issue number and expiry all matched a current card. Write down the expiry date and the date you checked.
The card details provided cannot be validated
Queensland's only failure message. It covers a typing mistake as much as a card that has expired, was lost or stolen, or has been cancelled or suspended, and it never says which. Check every field against the card before you read anything into it.
They say the application is still with Blue Card Services
The tool can see cards, not applications. Ask for the approval notice when it arrives.
The result carries two timestamps, and the earlier one is the point: the answer comes from a snapshot taken overnight, not a live look at the register. Queensland Police check every card holder daily, but Blue Card Services only tells organisations that have linked the holder, and a family is not one, so nothing reaches you if a card is cancelled next month.
A card that validates says the state has no reason to stop this person working with children, and nothing else. Whether they suit your kids is what the questions worth asking are for.
Renewing a blue card, and what expiry means
A card can be renewed up to 16 weeks before it expires, and Blue Card Services sends a reminder at 10 weeks. Renew on time and you can keep working with children while the renewal is assessed. It costs the same as applying did.
An expired card is not a valid card: the validator will not confirm it, and neither should a family. Ask for the expiry date with the number, and put it in the calendar.
Moving to Queensland from another state
Nothing carries in either direction. Queensland does not recognise working with children checks issued by another state or territory, and a blue card may not satisfy another state's requirements, so a sitter arriving from Sydney or Melbourne applies from scratch. The New South Wales check and the Victorian one have their own guides, and every state's rule sits in babysitter requirements in Australia.
One trap runs the other way: someone refused a check in another state or territory is a restricted person in Queensland, and cannot hold a blue card or fall back on an exemption.
What we check
A verified badge on a Queensland profile means we entered the babysitter's name, card number, issue number and expiry date into the Blue Card Services validator, with their permission, on a date the profile shows, and that Didit, our identity provider, matched a government photo ID to a selfie with the same name. We check once. The badge names the month, it comes off the morning after the card expires, and a family who wants today's answer has the free validator above.
