Key child protection measure marks first decade
It is 10 years since we launched the NSW Carers Register. This was part of the NSW Government response to recommendations of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
On Sunday 15 June, NSW became the first state to implement the royal commission’s recommendations about establishing a register of carers in out-of-home care, along with supporting legislation.
The register is a secure, central database. It holds information about authorised carers in NSW or people applying to become one.
Its main goal is to help keep children in out-of-home care safe by making sure only suitable people are authorised as carers, and that carers found to be unsuitable can’t move between agencies.
Currently, 53 agencies use the register to track carer applications and approvals. This allows agencies to share information important for protecting children.
The experience of creating and using the carers register also helped shape the development of the Residential Care Workers Register in 2023.
NSW has been a leader in Australia in creating measures to prevent unsuitable people from caring for vulnerable children and young people.
Interstate and international organisations have also asked us for information about how the registers work, what data we collect, and how information is shared.
Data snapshot
2015
When the NSW Carers Register went live in June 2015, agencies were required to add all authorised carers onto the system.
- 10,857 authorised households were added to the register
- Within those households, there were 15,822 authorised carers
2025
- 10,323 households are authorised, at 30 May 2025
- Within those households, there are 16,594 individual authorised carers
- 2,351 households added when the register was created are still authorised in 2025, with some current carers having been authorised for more than 20 years
