Blue Card
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About the blue card
Certain people are disqualified from applying for a blue card. A person is disqualified if they:
- have been convicted of a disqualifying offence (including a child-related sex or pornography offence, or the murder of a child), or
- are a reportable offender with current reporting obligations under the Child Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2004, or
- are subject to a child protection offender prohibition order, or
- are subject to a disqualification order prohibiting them from applying for or holding a blue card.
It is an offence for a disqualified person to sign a blue card application. Penalties of up to five years imprisonment or a fine of up to $50,000 may apply.
A disqualified person may apply to the Commission for an ‘eligibility declaration’ and in very limited and defined circumstances may be declared eligible to apply for a blue card.
For more information on how the new legislation affects you, see:
What is a blue card?
Blue cards are issued by the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian once it has carried out the Working with Children Check to see if a person is eligible to work in the areas of child-related work covered by the Commission’s Act. If a person is eligible, they are issued a positive notice letter and a blue card.
What is the Working with Children Check?
The Working with Children Check, also known as the blue card, is a detailed national criminal history check including:
- any charge or conviction for an offence, whether or not a conviction is recorded
- whether a person is a respondent to or subject to an application for a child protection prohibition order or disqualification order, or
- whether a person is subject to reporting obligations under the Child Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2004.
The Commission also considers disciplinary information held by certain professional organisations for:
- teachers
- child care service providers
- foster carers
- nurses
- midwives, and
- certain health practitioners
In addition, information from police investigations into allegations of serious child-related sexual offences will be taken into account, even if no charges were laid because the child was unwilling or unable to proceed.
A person whose application is approved is issued with a positive notice letter and a blue card.
If a person’s application is refused, they are issued with a negative notice which prohibits them from carrying on a business or providing child-related activities in the categories regulated by the Commission’s Act.
New blue card application forms
From 1 July 2009 the fee for the following blue card applications will increase to $61.85 in line with increases to the consumer price index:
- Paid employee applications;
- Business applications;
- Applications to cancel a negative notice; and
- Eligibility declaration applications.
Volunteer applications will continue to be processed free of charge.
The fee to replace a lost or stolen blue card and/or positive notice letter will increase to $10.30 in line with increases to the consumer price index.
From 22 June 2009 new application and replacement forms will be available on the Commission’s Website. From 1 September 2009 the Commission will no longer accept the old application forms.
The new forms can be downloaded from the FORMS page or you can request that a form be posted to you by contacting the Blue Card Contact Centre on 07 3211 6999 or 1800 113 611 (freecall).
Last Updated: August 27, 2009
