Allocation of Carer Register Access Business Rules

Contents

About this information sheet

What is the Carer Register?

What are the carer registration requirements under the Act

Access to the Carer register

Who can access the Carer Register?

How to obtain access to the Carer Register

Carer Recorder requirements

Review and removal of access to the Carer Register

More information

Allocation of Carer Register access1

About this information sheet

This information sheet outlines therequirements associated with allocation of licences to access the Carer Register.

What is the Carer Register?

Under part 3.4 of the Children, Youth and Families Act 2005 (the Act) the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services is required to keep a register of all out of out-of-home carers. The object of the legislation is to provide increased protection to children residing in out-of-home care by managing details about disqualified carers or carers under investigation under section 81/82 of the Act.

It is the responsibility of community service organisations and other registered out-of-home care services providers to ensure that all carers in scope of the carer registration requirements are entered and removed from the Carer Register within the legislated timeframes.

What are the carer registration requirements under the Act

Part 3.4 of the Act specifies a number of requirements for community service organisations and other registered out-of-home services in the registration of out-of-home carers and providers of services to children at an out-of-home care residence.All registered out-of-home care services must:

•Undertake a Disqualified Carer Check on all prospective out-of-home carers and providers of services to children at an out-of-home care residence before employment, engagement or approval as a foster carer(section 120 of the Act).

•Register out-of-home carersor a provider of services to children at an out-of-home care residence within 14 days of being approved, employed or engaged (section 78 of the Act).

•Revoke the registration of a carer, or provider of services to children at an out-of-home care residence, within 14 days of ceasing to be a carer or a provider of services (section 79 of the Act).

Disqualified Carer Checks, registration of carers and revoking are undertaken in the Carer Register.

For more detailed information about legislative requirements, please refer to the Act.

Further information about Disqualified Carer Checks, registration, revoking of carers and which carers are in scope can be found on the Registration of out-of-home carers page on the Department of Health and Human Services website

Access to the Carer register

The Department of Health and Human services (the department) providesregistered out-of-home care service providers with reasonable access to the Carer Register to enable them to meet legislative and department requirements.

Who can access the Carer Register?

Registered out-of-home care service providers are able to nominate staff, known as ‘Carer Recorders’,to access the Carer Register on behalf of their organisation.

To be considered for access to the Carer Register, an organisation must:

1. be a registered out-of-home carer service provider
2. have a service agreement, or a commitment, to provide out-of-home care services to child protection clients in a residential and/or foster care for the department.

How to obtain access to the Carer Register

Registered out-of-home care service providers may request access for new Carer Recorders by completing the Carer Register User Access form. The Carer Register User Access form has two parts. The new user completes the relevant details in the Carer Register User Access form acknowledging the terms of agreement regarding privacy and IT security. A seniororganisational authority from the service provider must approvethe new user by completing the Organisational Authority Approval part of the completed form, signing and personally emailing the form back to the Carer Register team at

The Carer Register User Access form can be found on the home page of the Carer Register by clicking on ‘show full list’. The form can also be obtained by contacting the Carer Register team via the Carer Register inbox at

Carer Recorder requirements

Availability of Carer Recorders

The department will from time to time need to contact a Carer Recorder to query the information submitted in a Disqualified Carer Check or a carer registration in the Carer Register. Carer Recorders must therefore be easily contactable, by phone and email during standard business hours (9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday). It is also requested that Carer Recorders respond promptly and within one business day to requests from the department for clarification of information in records in the Carer Register.

Carer Register training

Immediately after being given access to the Carer Register Carer Recorders must complete Carer Register training. If training is not completed within two weeks (or at a time negotiated with the Carer Register team), from being given access to the Carer Register, a Carer Recorder’s access may be removed.

User Sign In ID and Password

Due to the confidentiality of the information contained in the Carer Register, Carer Recorders should not share their User Sign In ID or password with anyone. If there are issues with access to the Carer Register the registered out-of-home service providershould contact the Carer Register team on (03) 9096 8690 or

Review and removal of access to the Carer Register

There are a limited number of licences to access to the Carer Register. The department aims to ensure equitable and reasonable distribution of the available licences to registered out-of-home care service providers.

It is preferred that licences are allocated to Carer Recorders who regularly access the Carer Register to complete Disqualified Carer Checks, registration and revoking of carers. The department regularly reviews Carer Recorder access and may provide additional licences or remove licences as appropriate.

If a Carer Recorder is no longer employed or in a role that requires them to access the Carer Register, the registered out-of-home service must immediately contact the Carer Register team on 03 9096 8690 or email the Carer Register inbox at vising that the Carer Recorder’s access to the Carer Register be removed.

Removal after no access

Carer Recorder access to the Carer Register will be reviewed at regular intervals.The following process is followed when a Carer Recorder has not accessed the Carer Register for a period of three months:

1. An access enquiry email will be sent to the Carer Recorder to confirmif they still require access to the Carer Register.
2. If the Carer Recorder indicates that access is still required,the Carer Register team will review, and if approved,ongoing access will be confirmed.
3. If there is no reply to theaccess enquiry email within two weeks, the Carer Recorder’s access to the Carer Register will be removed without further notification.
4. If a Carer Recorder’s access is continued, and is followed by another period of three months of no Carer Register access, their access will be removed without further notification.

The Carer Register team makes decisions about Carer Recorder access to the Carer Register in line with legislative and business needs.

More information

For information about:

•access to the Carer Register, Disqualified Carer Checks or registering carers, please call the Carer Register team (03) 9096 8690 or

•Out-of-home carer registration requirements please go to the Registration of out-of-home carers page on the Department of Health and Human Services website <

•Registration requirements for Community Service Organisations and other out-of-home care services please go to the Registration requirements for community services page on the Department of Health and Human Services website <

Allocation of Carer Register access1