Keeping children safe is a shared responsibility.
Victoria is reforming the Working with Children (WWC) Check to strengthen safeguards for children and help organisations make safer decisions about the people they engage to work or volunteer with children.
- From Monday 19 October 2026:
- the Working with Children (WWC) Connect online service will be introduced
- mandatory online child safety training will become part of the WWC Check application and renewal process.
Working with Children (WWC) Connect
WWC Connect is a new online service. It will enable organisations and sole traders to meet the new legal requirement to notify the Social Services Regulator (SSR) about workers and volunteers they engage to work with children. This will give the SSR more accurate and up-to-date information about where people with a WWC Clearance are working, and will help the SSR identify who needs to be informed if a worker’s WWC Clearance status changes.
Your organisation should start preparing now for WWC Connect.
Mandatory online child safety training
The training is mandatory for all:
- new WWC Check applicants
- people renewing their WWC Clearance
- people changing from a volunteer WWC Clearance to employee WWC Clearance.
They must complete the training before their WWC Check application can be finalised.
The training will help build a consistent understanding of child safety responsibilities across Victoria’s child-related workforce.
Organisations should be aware of the legal requirement so they can support affected workers and volunteers.
The training complements and does not replace organisations’ existing child safety responsibilities, induction, supervision and training.
To prepare for these changes, your organisation should:
- Understand the changes. Review your processes. Prepare your organisation.
- Check that your workers’ and volunteers’ WWC Clearance information is accurate and up to date.
- Prepare to connect the existing members of your workforce when WWC Connect becomes available by knowing their correct name, WWC Check card number, address and phone number so you can add these into the system.
- Make relevant recruitment compliance and HR staff aware of the changes.
- Inform workers and volunteers about the mandatory training requirement where relevant.
Once the changes come into effect, your organisation should:
1. Check – use the WWC status checker to check a person’s WWC Clearance before engaging them in child-related work.
2. Connect – when ready to formally engage, connect them to your organisation using WWC Connect
3. Record – keep appropriate records to show you have completed the required checks and connection
4. Maintain – keep your WWC Connect records up to date as workers start or stop doing child-related work for you and if their contact details change.
Your organisation is also strongly encouraged to connect your existing workers and volunteers. This will provide a more complete view of your child-related workforce. It will help ensure you receive notifications if someone’s WWC Clearance status changes.
For more information visit the Changes to the Working with Children Check.
