How to apply to renew your statutory out-of-home care or adoption service provider accreditation.
Before accreditation expires or ends
Agencies can be accredited for a period of 3 or 5 years. To remain accredited your agency must continue to demonstrate compliance with the standards and prior to the accreditation expiry date, it must apply for renewal.
Without current accreditation, an agency must not provide statutory out-of-home care or adoption services for children and young people in NSW.
To gain or maintain accreditation, agencies must provide evidence to demonstrate that they meet the requirements of the NSW Child Safe Standards for Permanent Care 2015.
From 1 October 2025, accredited agencies must comply with the Code of Practice.
Read more about the Code in the Code of Practice Implementation Handbook (PDF, 5.84MB)
Renewal resources
You can read more about how we assess and make accreditation decisions in the Monitoring and assessment framework factsheet and the Code of Practice Implementation Handbook
In 2025 we will be rolling out a suite of resources about requirements in the Code of Practice. These resources will be available on our website as they are released.
Browse other resources relating to statutory out-of-home care and adoption.
Deferred accreditation decisions
If your agency hasn’t demonstrated minimum compliance with accreditation criteria prior to the expiry date, the Children’s Guardian may defer the decision to renew accreditation under clause 7 of Schedule 3A and clause 7 of Schedule 3B to the Children's Guardian Act 2019.
If your agency is providing statutory out-of-home care or adoption services, it can continue to do so until a decision on its accreditation renewal is finalised. The Children’s Guardian may impose additional conditions on an agency’s accreditation.
