A Working with Children Check is a Victorian screening process for adults who work or volunteer with children, and coaching a junior basketball team is covered by it. The assessment draws on criminal records, particular court orders, disciplinary findings from certain professional bodies, and other child safety information. It is a screen, not a guarantee. Parents volunteering in their own child's activity are exempt, and so is anyone under 18.
Written by Cameron James, founder and head coach at Liddicoat Basketball. Over a decade coaching junior basketball in Melbourne, including at Big V level, and rep teams from Under 12s through to Under 18s.
Last updated August 2026.
The Victorian Government treats the Working with Children Check as a screening step applied to adults before and during their involvement with children in Victoria, and one that can be run again later. Someone who passes holds a Working with Children Clearance. It is a status, not a qualification, and it can be reassessed at any time if new information comes in.
The assessment draws on an applicant's criminal record, particular court orders, disciplinary findings made by certain professional bodies, and further child safety information that can extend to allegations of abuse or misconduct involving children. That last category is the part people underestimate. It is broader than a criminal record check, because a matter can be relevant without ever having produced a conviction.
Since the February 2026 reforms, the Check sits with the Social Services Regulator, in the same place as the Child Safe Standards and the Reportable Conduct Scheme. That consolidation was the point of the change. Applications, renewals, status checks and detail updates are all handled through Service Victoria.
There are two categories, volunteer and employee. A volunteer clearance does not cover paid work, which matters the moment a club starts paying a coach even a small amount. Service Victoria has a specific transaction for upgrading from volunteer to employee status, and the upgrade is the club's problem to notice as much as the coach's.
The Victorian Government sets out five conditions, and all five have to be true. You are an adult, you are working or volunteering in one of the listed fields, the work involves direct contact with children, that contact is part of your duties rather than incidental, and you are not otherwise exempt.
Sport is squarely in the listed fields. The guidance names clubs, associations or movements of a cultural, recreational or sporting nature that provide services or conduct activities for or directed at children. A junior basketball club is exactly that, so adult coaches, adult team managers and committee members with direct child contact are within scope.
The exemptions are where it gets misread. People under 18 are exempt. Parents are exempt from needing a Check to volunteer in the same activity their own child is participating in. Close relatives are exempt, as are 18 and 19 year old students volunteering at their own educational institution, teachers registered with the Victorian Institute of Teaching, and Victoria Police and Australian Federal Police officers.
Read the parent exemption carefully, because it is narrower than most parents assume. It covers you helping out in the activity your own child is in. Step outside that, by running a session for a different age group or by helping at a rep program your child is not in, and the exemption stops applying. Plenty of clubs require a Check from everyone regardless, and they are entitled to set that bar higher than the law does.
It is a point in time screen of what is on a record. A clearance means no disqualifying information was found at the time of assessment. It does not mean a person is safe, it means nothing has surfaced. That gap is the reason the Child Safe Standards exist as a separate obligation on the organisation.
It screens adults only. People under 18 are exempt from needing one. That is the honest limit of the whole system, and it matters more in junior sport than almost anywhere else, because a lot of what actually harms kids in a basketball program happens between kids. Hazing in a change room, sustained exclusion of one player by a group, sexual harassment between teammates, an age gap inside a single training group. No screening check touches any of that. Only supervision, culture and a complaints process a child will actually use will.
It says nothing about competence. A clearance does not mean someone can coach, knows how to manage a concussion, holds current first aid, understands load in a growing body, or behaves reasonably when a game gets tight. Those are separate questions and they are the ones you can actually judge for yourself by watching a training session.
It is also not a substitute for the club's own rules. Supervision ratios, change room protocols, rules about one to one sessions, transport rules, and rules about how adults message players are all things the Child Safe Standards ask an organisation to have. A club that leans on clearances alone has done only the easiest part of the job.
Service Victoria runs a Working with Children Check status checker, and the digital clearance held in the Service Victoria app can be verified by scanning the QR code on it. Those are the official tools and they are open to anyone with the right details.
In a club setting, though, this is genuinely the organisation's job rather than yours. The obligation to sight, record and monitor clearances sits with the organisation engaging the person, and a club that keeps a proper register is doing something a single parent spot check never could, which is noticing when one expires mid season.
So the more useful question is about the system, not the individual. Does the club keep a register. Is a clearance sighted before a coach takes their first session rather than at some point during the season. Who notices when one is due to expire. A club that can answer those three without hesitating is a club that has thought about it.
The exception is private coaching arranged directly between a family and an individual, outside any club. There, nobody else is running that check for you, and asking to see a current clearance before the first session is a completely normal request that no reasonable coach will take badly.
Before 2026 the pieces were scattered. The Commission for Children and Young People held the Child Safe Standards and the Reportable Conduct Scheme, while the Check sat elsewhere again. From 23 February 2026 the Social Services Regulator holds all three.
For a parent, the practical effect is mostly that the contact details changed and a lot of published sport sector guidance has not caught up. As at 24 August 2026 many club and association pages still name the Commission. The Commission's own site confirms the handover and directs people to the Regulator.
The three schemes still do different jobs and it is worth keeping them apart in your head. The Check screens an individual before they start. The Child Safe Standards oblige the organisation to run itself safely. The Reportable Conduct Scheme forces certain organisations to notify the Regulator when an allegation is made, and community sport clubs are not automatically inside that scheme.
To be clear about our own position here, because this page touches on reporting. Liddicoat Basketball is not a reporting body and does not receive or act on reports. Concerns about a person or an organisation go to the bodies named on this page, not to us.
If the coach is an adult, coaching involves direct contact with children as part of the role, and no exemption applies, then yes. Sporting clubs and associations that run activities for children are named in the Victorian Government's list of covered fields.
The Victorian Government states that parents are exempt from needing a Check to volunteer in the same activity their child is participating in. That exemption is narrow, and it stops applying if you help with a different group. Many clubs require one anyway as their own policy.
There is a Working with Children Check status checker run by Service Victoria, and digital clearances can be verified by scanning the QR code in the Service Victoria app. In a club setting the obligation to sight and monitor clearances sits with the club, so the better question is whether the club keeps a register.
Clearances do expire and can be renewed through Service Victoria, but we could not confirm the current expiry period from an official Victorian Government page as at 24 August 2026, so we are not going to quote a number. Your own card and Service Victoria record show your expiry date.
No, and treating it that way is the most common mistake parents make. It is a point in time screen of records held about adults. It cannot see future behaviour, it does not assess coaching ability, and because under 18s are exempt it does not address harm between children at all.
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Facts on this page were compiled from the official sources below and written up in our own words. Dates, fees and venues change every season, so confirm anything you are relying on with the association directly.
This page was last updated August 2026. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
Liddicoat Basketball runs skill development for junior players around Melbourne. Cameron coaches the sessions himself, and the plans are built to sit around a normal domestic or rep season rather than compete with it.