How to check a babysitter's WWCC (NSW parent's guide)
Verifying a Working With Children Check is free, takes about two minutes, and anyone can do it. Here's what you need, where to enter it, and what each result means.
Most parents have heard of the Working With Children Check. Far fewer have ever run one, and almost nobody is told that verifying someone else's Check is free, takes about two minutes, and is something you are expected to do yourself. This is how it works in NSW.
What a WWCC actually is
The Working With Children Check is a clearance issued by the NSW Office of the Children's Guardian. Getting one involves a national police check and a review of any reportable workplace misconduct findings held about that person. A clearance lasts five years. It costs the worker $107, or nothing if they are a volunteer.
There is no physical card. What a cleared person holds is a number, in the format WWC followed
by seven digits and a letter — WWC1234567E for an employee clearance, WWC1234567V for a
volunteer one. That distinction matters: a volunteer clearance does not cover paid work.
The number by itself proves nothing. Someone can read a number off a screenshot, or off somebody else's screen. The number is a key you use to look up a live status, not a credential in its own right. Which is why the step below is the one that counts.
What you need before you start
Three things, and the check will not run without all three:
- Their family name, spelled as it appears on their Check
- Their date of birth
- Their WWC number
Ask for all three in one message. A sitter who has a current Check will hand them over without fuss — this is a routine request and they will have been asked before. Hesitation is itself information.
Where to check
Go to the Service NSW page for checking a Working With Children Check status. It links through to the Office of the Children's Guardian verification form. It is free, and you do not need an account.
Enter the three details exactly as given. Spelling matters — a hyphenated or double family name entered differently from how it was registered will come back as not found, which looks alarming and usually isn't.
What each result means
Cleared. The person holds a current, valid clearance. This is the only result you should accept.
Application in progress. They have applied and the check has not finished. They are legally permitted to work in child-related roles while an application is being processed, but you are not obliged to engage them in the meantime, and for a babysitter you have no reason to. Ask them to come back to you when it clears.
Barred. The person is prohibited from child-related work. Do not engage them, and do not negotiate about it.
Interim barred. They are barred while an assessment is underway. Treat it exactly as you would a bar.
Not found. The three details you entered do not match a record. Check your spelling and the date of birth first, because that is usually the cause. If it still comes back not found, the number is wrong or it is not theirs.
The QR code shortcut
If the sitter has the Service NSW app, they can show you a QR code for their Check and you can scan it rather than typing anything. It reaches the same verification, faster, and it sidesteps the spelling problem entirely. Worth asking for if you are meeting in person anyway.
After you check, the state keeps checking
This is the part almost nobody knows, and it is the most useful thing in this article.
Once you have verified someone's Check, the Office of the Children's Guardian will contact you if that person's status later changes. You are not signing up for a subscription or a monitoring service. Verifying once puts you on the list to be told if something happens afterwards.
For a sitter you use a few times a year, that is genuinely valuable. The check you ran in March is still working for you in November.
What a WWCC does not tell you
A cleared Check means the state has looked at a specific set of records and found nothing that disqualifies this person from working with children. That is meaningful. It is also narrow.
It does not tell you whether they are any good with children. It does not tell you whether they turn up on time, whether they can handle a toddler who will not settle, or whether they have ever looked after a newborn. It says nothing about a first aid certificate, a driver's licence, or the years of experience on their profile. Those are claims, and claims are checked by asking for evidence and calling referees.
So: run the Check, then do the other things. Meet them before the first booking. Ask for two families you can call, and actually call them. Have a short trial while you are still in the house. The Office of the Children's Guardian publishes its own guidance for parents and carers, which is worth ten minutes of reading.
Does a babysitter even need one?
Not always, and this trips up a lot of people. A privately arranged babysitter working in your own home is not legally required to hold a WWCC in NSW. A nanny, au pair, or tutor is, and you as the parent are the one expected to verify it. We have written that up separately in babysitter vs nanny: what NSW law actually requires.
The legal floor being low does not mean you have to sit on it. Plenty of casual babysitters hold a Check because it makes them easier to hire, and asking for one is reasonable whether or not the law compels it.
What we do about this on AusBabysitters
When a profile on this site carries a verified badge, it means we ran exactly the process above ourselves. We checked the sitter's WWCC status with the Office of the Children's Guardian, on a date we record and display, against a government photo ID and a matching selfie confirmed by our identity provider. The name and date of birth on the ID have to match the WWCC details, or the badge does not go on.
Because we ran the verification, the Office of the Children's Guardian notifies us if a status changes. A barred notification takes the profile down the same day.
We do not check references, first aid certificates, or how many years someone has been sitting. Those appear on profiles as the sitter's own claims, labelled as claims. A profile without a badge is not a profile we distrust — it is one nobody has checked yet, and it says so.