Service NSW and the Office of the Children’s Guardian (in partnership with Transport for NSW) are collecting your personal information to complete a Working with Children Check renewal application.
The OCG previously sought your consent when you applied for the Working with Children Check clearance and you acknowledged and accepted the consent form for OCG to assess your suitability to work with children when you submitted the application to the OCG.
This Privacy Collection Notice is for the purposes of collecting your personal information to complete a Working with Children Check renewal application. OCG will continue to handle your personal information in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Act 1998, for the purpose of your application under the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (WWC Act) for a Working with Children Check (WWCC) clearance.
The Working with Children Check relies on the collection, sharing and monitoring of information across Australia. Information about you will be sought, obtained, shared, used and retained for the purposes outlined below and as otherwise allowed under the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (NSW) or as otherwise authorised or required by law or where you have given consent.
Service NSW gives priority to protecting the privacy of your personal information. We do this by handling personal information in a responsible manner and in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.
Purpose of collecting your information
Service NSW is collecting your personal information to assist the Office of the Children’s Guardian with assessing your suitability for a Working with Children Check. This includes the following purposes:
- processing your application for a Working with Children Check (WWCC)
- verifying the evidence of your identity documents with the Document Verification Service
- verifying your identity using the biometric facial verification system
- establishing or maintaining records in your MyServiceNSW Account
- providing you with further information and guidance about the Working with Children Check
- responding to enquiries about applying for the Working with Children Check, and
- other directly related purposes.
Service NSW may also collect aggregated and de-identified information (information that does not identify you personally) for analytical and reporting purposes.
Types of information we collect
Service NSW may collect your personal information on behalf of the Office of the Children’s Guardian during your Working with Children Check application. This may include your:
- full name including any previous names or aliases
- date of birth
- contact details including mobile number, business phone number and email address
- residential address (and mailing address, where it differs from your residential address)
- gender
- place of birth including country, state/territory and town/suburb
- whether you identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander
- proof of identity information (such as your driver licence number, Medicare Card details, or information from other identity documents).
If you choose to complete a Digital Proof of Identity check, Service NSW may capture the following personal and biometric information to complete a liveness check and facial verification step. This includes:
- scan of your face using your device camera
- NSW Driver Licence or NSW Photo Card photograph.
Providing us with the requested information is not required by law – it's voluntary. However, if you choose not to provide us with the requested information, Service NSW and the Office of the Children's Guardian may not be able to provide you with the services and support you may require.
Using and sharing your information
How Service NSW will use and disclose your personal information
Your personal information will be shared with the Office of the Children’s Guardian to progress your Working with Children Check application.
If you choose to complete a Digital Proof of Identity check, your personal information will be shared with Transport for NSW to match you to your NSW Driver Licence photo. Service NSW will also capture biometric information from you by scanning your face to verify your identity using a biometric facial verification system.
Service NSW will temporarily hold your biometric information in an encrypted format whilst you complete the facial verification process. Your information will not be shared with any other third party. As soon as this process is complete, Service NSW will delete your biometric information, regardless of whether your verification is successful.
Service NSW also conducts de-identified quality assurance on the quality of images used for facial verification, so that we can continue to improve the service.
You can find more information about how the digital identity process works at Digital proof of identity – Privacy Collection Notice.
It is important to note that the Digital Proof of Identity process is optional. You can choose to complete you Proof of Identity check, at any time, in a Service NSW Service Centre.
Service NSW collects, maintains and uses information about you for our internal administrative purposes, including for the purpose of interacting with you.
Your personal information will be used for the primary reason for which it was collected or a directly related purpose, by Service NSW staff. It may also be used and disclosed to help prevent a serious or imminent threat to life or health or where we are authorised or required to do so by law.
Service NSW may also share aggregated information for research and statistical purposes with partner agencies such as the Office of the Children’s Guardian and Transport for NSW. All reporting will be de-identified and will not contain any personally identifiable information.
Service NSW will not provide your personal information to third parties for any purposes not already stated in this privacy notice, or to which you have not otherwise consented, unless Service NSW is required, or authorised, by law to do so.
How the Office of the Children’s Guardian will use and disclose your personal information
The information collected will be securely shared directly with the Office of the Children’s Guardian to allow them to assess your Working with Children Check application under the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (NSW). This will include disclosing your personal information to the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and the Australian Police Agencies (which are agencies that exist in every State and Territory in Australia) for the purposes of a National Police History Check (NPHC) which may involve:
- ACIC disclosing personal information about you to the Australian Police Agencies
- the Australian Police Agencies disclosing to ACIC details of convictions and outstanding charges, including findings of guilt or the acceptance of a plea of guilty by a court, that can be disclosed in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth, States and Territories and, in the absence of any laws governing the disclosure of this information, disclosing in accordance with the policies of the Australian Police Agency concerned
- ACIC providing the information disclosed by the Australian Police Agencies to the Office of the Children's Guardian in accordance with the laws of the Commonwealth.
ACIC will also disclose information in the Working with Children Checks – National Reference System (NRS) back to Australian State and Territory Working with Children screening agencies. The OCG may share and receive information by way of the NRS in accordance with the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012 (NSW).
For more information regarding the NPHC process or the handling of personal information and Police history information, you can contact ACIC’s National Police Checking Service on:
- Phone: (02) 6268 7900
- Email: npcs@acic.gov.au
The OCG may also obtain information or documents for the purpose of assessing your WWCC application from:
- Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission
- NSW Police Force
- the Director of Public Prosecutions, whether or not those documents are subject to legal professional privilege or other restrictions of disclosure
- courts, and
- government agencies and other persons holding information about you, including from the National Disability Insurance Scheme Quality and Safeguards Commission, misconduct reports under Schedule 1 of the WWCC Act and any other information that may be lawfully disclosed to the OCG under the WWC Act or the provision of any other law.
The OCG may also disclose information about the outcome of your WWCC to:
- any notifiable person, including your employer and/or their authorised agent, should an interim or final bar prevent you from working in child-related work, or in the event that you have been given approval to surrender or withdraw your WWCC clearance/application
- the National Disability Insurance Scheme Worker Check (NDISWC).
Whilst your WWCC is in force, the NSW Police Force will store information about you in the NSW Police database and new criminal history information or misconduct reports will be disclosed to the OCG by the NSW Police Force during the currency of a WWCC and may be used to re-assess your WWCC clearance.
The OCG will only use your personal information for the purpose for which it was collected and will request your consent prior to any other secondary use. The OCG will take reasonable security measures to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, or other misuse.
Protecting your information
Service NSW will take reasonable security measures to protect your personal information from loss, unauthorised access, use, modification, disclosure, or other misuse.
Accessing your information
You may ask for access to the information Service NSW hold about you at any time and request to update, correct or amend your personal information by calling 13 77 88.
For further details about how Service NSW collects and manages personal information, how you can access and correct it, raise concerns about an alleged breach of privacy law or other relevant legislation, or to make a privacy complaint, please visit Service NSW Privacy.
Privacy Officer
Service NSW
2-24 Rawson Place
Sydney NSW 2000
For further details about how the OCG handles personal information, please contact (02) 8219 3600, email legal@ocg.nsw.gov.au or write to: General Counsel Directorate, Office of the Children's Guardian, Locked Bag 5100, Strawberry Hills NSW 2012.
Read the full Office of the Children’s Guardian Privacy Collection Notice.