If you want to work with kids in Cairns, in a childcare centre, a school, outside school hours care, a sports club or a youth program, the blue card is the gate you go through first. It is not a course you sit in a day. It is a background check, it takes as long as it takes, and that is why you should start it before you have a job offer in hand.
What a blue card is
The blue card is Queensland's working with children check. It is run by Blue Card Services, a Queensland Government function, and it involves a check of your national criminal history and other relevant information rather than any training or exam.
That means there is nothing to study, and the timing is out of your hands, which makes applying early the most useful thing you can do.
The card belongs to you, not to your employer. If you change jobs it travels with you, though you do need to link it to each new organisation you work for.
Who needs one in Cairns
Queensland regulates a defined list of child-related work. In practice, around Cairns that means:
- Early childhood educators and assistants across the city and the northern beaches
- Teacher aides, school officers and support staff
- Outside school hours care and vacation care staff
- Cleaners, groundskeepers and maintenance staff working at schools
- Sports coaches, swim teachers and youth workers
- Foster and kinship carers
- Some tour, activity and camp roles that supervise children unaccompanied
If you are applying for childcare jobs in Cairns or cleaning work that includes school contracts, expect the blue card question in the first phone call. Whether a specific role is regulated is a legal question, so check the categories of regulated work on the Blue Card Services website rather than guessing.
Do not wait for a job offer. Cairns childcare and school employers routinely will not interview someone who has not at least applied, because they cannot put you on the floor without a card. Getting your application in is how you become interviewable.
Blue card or exemption card?
Not everyone gets the same card. Registered teachers and police officers are handled differently under the scheme, through exemption cards, and volunteers are treated differently from paid employees. Students on a course placement have their own arrangements, so if you are studying, ask your training provider what applies to your placement before you apply.
Work out which category you fall into first. It affects the form, what your organisation has to do, and what you pay.
How to apply
- Read the eligibility and application information on the Blue Card Services website. It changes, which is why no blog should be quoting it back at you second-hand.
- Sort out your identity documents. There are specific identification requirements. Getting this wrong is the most common cause of a delayed application.
- Apply online through the Blue Card Services applicant portal. For paid work you generally need to be connected to an employing organisation, so your employer or prospective employer will have a part to play.
- Have your organisation confirm the link. Most Cairns childcare centres and schools do this daily and will walk you through it. If you are not yet employed, check what options apply to you.
- Keep your reference or application number. Employers will ask for it, and being able to say "applied, here is my number" is far better than "I am planning to".
Fees and how long it takes
Fees differ depending on whether you are applying as a paid employee or a volunteer, and processing times move around depending on demand and whether your application needs a closer look. Check the current fee and published processing times on the Blue Card Services website, and take them seriously when you plan your job search.
A practical tip: an application that has to come back to you for missing identification restarts your waiting. Read the document requirements twice.
If you have something on your record
A criminal history does not automatically mean no. Blue Card Services assesses applications, and the outcome depends on what the information is and how it relates to child safety. Some serious offences do disqualify a person.
If you are worried about what is on your record, read the eligibility information on the Blue Card Services website before you apply, and get legal advice if it is complicated. Community legal services exist for this. Do not assume the worst and never apply.
Keeping it current
- Cards run for a set period and then need renewing. Check the expiry printed on yours and start the renewal well before that date, because letting it lapse can stop you working.
- The scheme keeps monitoring cardholders, and you must report certain changes in your circumstances to Blue Card Services.
- Link and unlink properly when you change employer.
- Queensland works on a no card, no start basis for regulated child-related work, which means you generally cannot begin before your card is issued. Confirm how that applies to your specific role with your employer or Blue Card Services.
While you wait
The wait is dead time only if you let it be:
- Get a first aid and CPR certificate. Childcare and school employers often require one.
- Look into a qualification in early childhood education if that is your direction.
- Line up referees who have seen you with children: coaching, family or volunteering.
- The certificates overview shows how a blue card sits alongside the other tickets that Cairns employers ask about, and the no experience guide covers how to apply here so you actually get called back.
Application lodged? Start watching what centres and schools around Cairns are advertising on the job board so you know the market before your card lands, and can move the day it does.