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 1, 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. Evidence assessed includes direct and indirect evidence.
Further information about the evidence requirements can be found through the related content links below.
Renewal resources
We are reviewing the way we accredit and monitor agencies that provide statutory out-of-home care and adoption services. We want to make sure our accreditation framework reflects the reality of the way out-of-home care and adoption services operate in NSW.
We are trialling a new Monitoring to Renewal Framework, which has a stronger focus on agencies’ quality assurance and continuous improvement systems. Under this framework we will have more regular contact with agencies during the accreditation cycle, but our engagements will be briefer.
You can read more about the new approach in the Monitoring to Renewal Framework factsheet.
The Evidence Index will help you prepare evidence of your agency’s compliance with the standards.
The Accreditation Guide provides a general overview of accreditation and monitoring.
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.
