I received the following as a response to my post Interstate paramedic and NSW Working with Children Check (August 30, 2026):

The minimum age to join the NSW State Emergency Service (NSW SES) is 16: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/volunteer/faqs

In the last few years, it has also been running a very popular and very successful Youth Internship Program: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/news/students-learn-skills-life-nsw-ses-youth-internship-program-inspires-new-volunteers

NSW SES also recently announced a partnership with the Duke of Edinburgh program: https://www.ses.nsw.gov.au/news/nsw-ses-partners-duke-edinburghs-international-award-support-young-australians

One could also argue, that during the course of its activities as the combat agency for floods, storms and tsunamis, it potentially regularly has contact with individuals under 18.

Yet, NSW SES does not require adult members to hold a valid Working with Children (WWCC) check. 

The senior unit learnership such as Unit Commander and Deputy Unit Commanders, and the limited number of adult members involved in the 8-10 week Youth Internship Program require to hold valid WWCC checks but all other adult members do not.

Even if the general adult member is not engaged in the Youth Internship Program, they would still have regular contact with those members 16 and 17 years of age. 

One would have thought, as a NSW Government emergency service, if not mandated by law, at the bare minimum it would be good practice to mandate all adult members to hold a valid WWCC?

Government departments are good at doing what the law requires and not necessarily anything more.  Anything more is not cost free, in this context it would require monitoring, record keeping and what do you do with someone who does not need a WWCC and refuses to get one or worse is unable to get one but is perhaps a very good at climbing on and fixing roofs? And there’s a cost in getting the checks even if they are free to volunteers, someone’s paying.  So I’m sure it’s not as easy as saying ‘we don’t have to do this but we think we should’.

But do they have to do it?  It is interesting to observe that in Queensland they took the view that all members fo the RFS and SES had to have the Queensland equivalent – the ‘blue card’ – see Working with children check for QRFS and SES (July 20, 2019).  That was a decision that was, at the time, controversial and caused considerable backlash from the membership.  The Queensland management took the view that the RFS included providing a health service to children so a clearance was required.  In my post I said:

‘Is it a reasonable argument that the ‘usual function’ of a Rural Fire Brigade include or are likely to include providing a health service to a child?’  Yes, I think it is a reasonable argument.  It is however, just an argument and not necessarily a persuasive argument.

I then set out my reasons for thinking the work of a Queensland Rural Fire Brigade was not providing a health service to a child; but of course it’s not my opinion that counts.  And if the Commissioner thinks it is, then that is the decision that counts. I also said:

The government and therefore QFES, unlike a private operator, has I suspect no risk appetite in this area.  If a public sector agency is found not to have complied with the Working with Children, (Risk Management and Screening) Act 2000 (Qld), in particular if the unthinkable happens, the consequences would be more dramatic than for a private sector operator.  And the argument ‘we knew we might, but we thought on balance the argument that we were not required was stronger and it was too expensive to comply ‘just in case’’ would not, I suspect wash with the voting public.

Maybe the NSW SES has a different risk appetite.

To return to the NSW legislation, the definition of ‘child-related work’ is ‘work referred to in subsection (2) that involves direct contact by the worker with a child or children and that contact is a usual part of and more than incidental to the work’.  Subsection (2) refers to work in the fields of:

(a) child development 

mentoring and counselling services for children,

(b) child protection

child protection services,

(c) children’s health services

the provision of health care in wards of hospitals where children are treated and the direct provision of other child health services,

(d) clubs or other bodies providing services for children

clubs, associations, movements, societies or other bodies (including bodies of a cultural, recreational or sporting nature) providing programs or services for children,

(e) disability services

respite care or other support services for children with a disability,

(f) early education and child care

education and care services, child care centres, nanny services and other child care,

(g) education

schools or other educational institutions (other than universities) and private coaching or tuition of children,

(h) entertainment for children

sporting, cultural or other entertainment venues used primarily by children and entertainment services for children,

(i) justice services

detention centres (within the meaning of the Children (Detention Centres) Act 1987) and juvenile correctional centres (within the meaning of the Crimes (Administration of Sentences) Act 1999),

(j) religious services

any religious organisation,

(k) residential services

refuges used by children, long term home stays for children, boarding houses or other residential services for children and overnight camps for children,

(l) transport services for children

transport services especially for children, including school bus services and taxi services for children with a disability and supervision of school road crossings,

(m) other

any other service for children prescribed by the regulations.

Does the work of the SES fall within any of those paragraphs? The Youth Internship Program and the Duke of Edinburgh scheme probably fall within paragraph (d) -the SES is an ‘other body’ providing a program for children so those involved in those programs would need a WWCC.  A member of the SES who might, as an incidental part of their normal volunteering have contact with that group would not; for example a member of the Kickatinalong unit is there when the members of the Duke of Edinburgh or Youth Internship program come by for a familiarisation tour of the Kickatinalong rescue vehicle. 

Between 1 July and 4 August 2019, the Working with Children (Risk Management and Screening) Act 2000 (Qld) (now the Working with Children Check Act 2000) defined a health service as ‘a service for maintaining, improving, restoring or caring for a person’s health or wellbeing’ (sch 1cl 6(5)).  A support service was ‘a service that provides emotional support, mentoring or pastoral care’. The Fire Service took the view that fire brigades might be called upon to provide those services at the scene of a fire or other emergency.  Similar definitions continue to apply in the current version of the Act. A person engaged in the provision of those services to children needed (and need) a Queensland Working with Children Check (a WWCC). 

In New South Wales a person providing a health service to children also needs a WWCC but the definition of health service is much more restricted. Regulations 6(1) and (2) of the Child Protection (Working with Children) Regulation 2013 (NSW) refers to work by a ‘health practitioner’. Whilst an SES volunteer may be a health practitioner that is not what they are doing when they are in the SES so we’ll put that to one side, and in any event they’ll probably have a WWCC for when they are at work.

Regulation 6(3) refers to ‘Work by persons (other than health practitioners) who provide health and care services in paediatric or adolescent health services is child-related work’ (emphasis added).  SES volunteers are ‘persons (other than health practitioners) …’ but they are not providing ‘health and care services in paediatric or adolescent health services’.  There is an extensive definition of what is a ‘health service’ in r 6(5) but that list could not include the work of the SES.  

What follows is that unlike the Queensland Act, it would be impossible to argue that the members of the NSW SES are providing a ‘health service’ for children even if they may be called upon to assist a child during a flood, rescue or other emergency. 

As for working with members who are under 18 and therefore children, it is not obvious that this would fall within the definition of child-related work.  The closest would be paragraph (d) that is ‘clubs or other bodies providing services for children’. The Regulations give more details. Regulation 7 says:

Work for a …  body of a … community service nature that involves providing programs or services primarily for children is child-related work.

Membership of the SES, even if the member is a child, does not involve the child enrolling in a program or service ‘primarily for children’. The Youth Internship and the Duke of Edinburgh programs may be ‘primarily for children’ but the SES general membership is not.  And for those members who do come into contact with younger members, that contact is incidental to their work in the SES. 

The Act does provide that some people who are not engaged in child-related work can apply for a WWCC (see ss 10 to 11D). The inference is that a person who is not engaged in child-related work or is on the list of ‘other persons’, cannot apply for a check.  This is confirmed by the online form (https://wwccheck.ocg.nsw.gov.au/Apply) where an applicant has to select from the drop-down box what child related sector they intend to work in.

Finally, section 7 says that an employer:

… of a worker engaged in work for which a working with children check clearance is not required that involves access to confidential records or information about children may, by notice in writing to the worker, require the worker to obtain a clearance for the purposes of engaging in the work concerned.

One might think that members of the SES may have access to ‘confidential … information about children’ that they learn when responding to an emergency.  The Children’s Guardian, however, says ‘Note that your employer can only require you to hold a Check [under this section] if it has the approval of the Children’s Guardian to do so’ (see https://ocg.nsw.gov.au/working-children-check/who-needs-check#section-target-1).

Conclusion

In 2019 (and still today) it was a reasonable argument that members of the Queensland Rural Fire Service were in a position where they might provide a health service to children so a WWCC was required. I think it was also a reasonable argument that they were not, but where there is an argument like that someone has to make a call and the then Commissioner in Queensland determined that in her opinion the Card was required.  

I don’t think it is possible to make a similar argument in NSW, and the SES cannot direct or require its members to apply for a WWCC if they cannot identify what child-related sector they are working in.  Even if they think it is a good idea the management of the NSW SES cannot ‘mandate all adult members to hold a valid WWCC’ unless they can identify how they are engaged in child-related work.

This blog is a general discussion of legal principles only.  It is not legal advice. Do not rely on the information here to make decisions regarding your legal position or to make decisions that affect your legal rights or responsibilities. For advice on your particular circumstances always consult an admitted legal practitioner in your state or territory.