Child safe recruitment

Recruiting staff for my child-related organisation

Choosing staff who align with your child safe values is an important way children can be kept safe in organisations. In addition to mandatory workplace checks like the Working with Children Check, you should:

• describe your intention to only recruit staff who understand their child-safe obligations in job ads
• ask both behavioural (what have you done) and situational (what would you do) interview questions that demonstrate an applicant’s approach to child safety
• check references with a previous supervisor of the candidate to establish the candidate’s attitude towards being child safe. You may choose to also conduct a Criminal Record check with NSW Police
• describe your organisation’s emphasis on being child safe and include child-safe components during induction
• include specific information on how your organisation is child safe in staff training, including child-safe policies and procedures
• model child-safe practices.

Child safe job advertisements

Job advertisements should discourage applicants who may be a risk to the safety of children. They can do this by helping people to understand that your child-related environment is one where it is harder to offend against children and there is an increased chance they will be caught. At the same time, they should encourage the kind of people you do want to work with.

From a child-safe perspective, your job ad should seek people who:

• have a strong understanding of contemporary child-safe practices, and who are familiar with the NSW Child Safe Standards
• have a valid Working with Children Check (that you need to verify online) or be willing and able to obtain one
• ideally have a relevant professional qualification or be prepared to study for one.

You may also want to consider where you place your job ad. A recruitment agency may be more appropriate than social media, for example. The most important thing is to reinforce that workers in your organisation understand that child safety is your priority.

Ad examples

Questions that help recruit child-safe staff 

There are different types of questions that can help you determine if the person you’re recruiting is child safe. They are called behavioural and situational questions. In both cases, the question is firmly focused on child safety. 

Behavioural questions

These questions can help you to understand what a candidate’s attitude to child safety is by exploring their past interactions with children in a child-related setting. They can include questions like: 

• Can you describe a time when you worked well with children, and what happened? 
• Can you tell us about a time you had to respond to a child with challenging behaviour? What happened, and what did you do? 
• Have you worked with someone who you thought was a good leader in a child-related organisation?
• What characteristics did they model that particularly impressed you? 

Situational questions

Sometimes called scenario-based questions, these questions can also help to determine a candidate’s child safe attitudes, but they do it by putting the candidate in hypothetical situations. They can include questions like: 

• You’ve entered a room and witnessed two children becoming increasingly frustrated with each other over who can play with a piece of equipment. One of the children has behavioural issues and is known to bite other children. What do you do? 
• A colleague, who is great with children, has told you that they take pictures of them while at the centre and send them to their parents using their phone. How would you respond? 
• Your co-worker has just strongly disciplined a child for what you believe to be a minor matter. How would you deal with it?  

Screening checks

In NSW all workers in child-related work, whether paid or unpaid, must hold a Working With Children Check (WWCC) clearance or a current WWCC application (unless they are subject to an exemption). All WWCCs should be verified online with the Office of the Children's Guardian. 

The WWCC considers a person’s suitability to work with children based on known prior history. Employers may also consider asking the applicant for a broader National Police Check to assess their suitability more generally. This will alert them to any offences that may indicate they aren’t a ‘fit and proper person’ to take the role.

Certain workers delivering support or services under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) are also required to have a worker screening clearance, including adults who work with children with disability. In NSW this is called the NDIS Worker Check (NDISWC). If organisations are considering employing an applicant to work with children with disability, they may need to ask the applicant to obtain an NDISWC as well as a WWCC.