The NSW Carers Register is a centralised database of people who have applied to, or become an authorised carer, to provide statutory or supported out-of-home care in NSW.
Purpose of the NSW Carers Register
The Carers Register helps to promote the safety, welfare and wellbeing of children and young people in statutory or supported out-of-home care by ensuring they are cared for by appropriate and suitable carers.
It does this by requiring mandatory probity and suitability checks including supporting the exchange of information between agencies about those who apply to be a carer, those already authorised as carers and their household members.
Guiding principles
The Carers Register aims to:
- reduce the risk of unsuitable individuals being authorised to care for children
- allow for essential information to be recorded to support agencies to share relevant information
- require agencies to confirm that carers and relevant household members have been assessed against minimum probity and suitability checks
- act as a licensing tool, by issuing individuals with a carer authorisation number, which is required before they can care for children in statutory or supported out-of-home care
- be a restricted access site, with strict privacy controls.
A source of useful data
By collecting information over time, the Carers Register is a reliable source of data about:
- application and authorisation history, including where applications have been refused or a carer’s authorisation has been cancelled or suspended
- associations between carers and households, including individual household members, and any movements into and out of households
- any history a prospective carer or their household members has with other designated agencies, including any current associations
- reports which detail households and their application or authorisation history
The Carers Register will not:
- record details of children in care
- support placement matching
- replace the detailed processes every designated agency has for how they assess and authorise carers and their households
- contain detailed records.
How we use the NSW Carers Register
The Office of the Children's Guardian accredits agencies that provide out-of-home care and adoption services (known as designated agencies) and then monitors how they perform. The Carers Register is central to how we do this, by providing agencies with access to relevant information which they can use to make decisions about carers.
We maintain the register in line with the Children’s Guardian Act 2019 , the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Regulation 2022 and the Children's Guardian Regulation 2022.
Enquiries
All enquiries should be sent to carers-register@ocg.nsw.gov.au
