Welcome to the Blue Card Services Online Information Sessions.
We acknowledge the traditional owners of the land upon which we are recording
this information session. We pay our respects to elders both past
and present for their courage and leadership in
advocating for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
We also pay our respects to future elders and acknowledge the valuable role
they play in shaping our future generations. We
extend a special welcome to all First Nation peoples listening to
this information session.
This video provides information on the key obligations for
organisations. On 31 August 2020, the Queensland Government made changes
to the blue card system to make it better. Better for you, better for our kids.
If you operate a business regulated by the blue card system
you must comply with certain obligations.
This video will guide you through some important obligations which will help
your organisation stay on track with your blue card compliance
requirements. All organisations falling within the
scope of the blue card system must develop and implement child and
youth risk management strategies which address eight minimum requirements.
To assist organisations to develop and implement child
and youth risk management strategies, a suite of short online videos and a
toolkit has been developed, both of which are available on our
website. We may request information regarding
your strategy at any time. Failure to comply with the requirement
to have a child and youth risk management strategy
is an offence and penalties may apply.
Under the No Card, No Start laws, anyone who works or volunteers with kids in
Queensland is required to hold a valid blue card
before they start working or volunteering. Organisations are
responsible for ensuring all paid employees and volunteers hold a
valid blue card before they start working or volunteering.
In some instances, an exemption card may be required.
A list of scenarios and roles where an exemption card may be required,
rather than a blue card, is available on our website.
Organisations must link every person whose work falls within the scope of the
blue card system. Organisations can link a card holder by
using the online Organisation Portal or by submitting a 'Link person to your
organisation' form. This means your organisation will
receive important notifications, such as if the card is suspended or
cancelled. You must ensure this form is submitted before a
card holder starts working or volunteering with your organisation.
Similarly, when a volunteer or paid employee stops working with your
organisation, you must notify us by using the online Organisation Portal
or by submitting a 'Delink a person from your organisation' form.
All blue card holders and applicants are monitored by the Queensland
Police Service on a daily basis. If there is a change in a person's police
information, we are notified and will assess,
depending on the nature and circumstances surrounding the
offence, whether or not the person should retain
their blue card. If it is determined that the person should not retain their blue
card, we will notify all organisations which
are linked to the person's card. If your organisation hasn't told us that
you have engaged the person, we will not know to tell your
organisation that the person is no longer eligible to work in child-related
employment. This creates a real risk that you may
continue to employ somebody who is not eligible to work with
children. This may result in a risk of harm to the children in your service
environment, as well as potential offences committed
by your organisation.
Your organisation also has specific obligations if you become aware
that an employee or volunteer: has been issued with a negative notice; is a known
disqualified person; or has had their blue or exemption card
cancelled or suspended. Your organisation must
ensure the employee or volunteer does not
continue to work with children in your organisation.
This includes any position on a committee or advisory board where the
person's decision-making impacts on children within the
organisation's service environment. If your organisation continues to employ
the blue card holder who you have been notified about in a
non-regulated capacity, appropriate policies and procedures must
be in place to manage any risk of harm to children and young people. If you
continue to employ this person, you should discuss any potential
implications with Blue Card Services. The No Card, No Start laws mean stricter
requirements for people who rely on an exemption
to work or volunteer with kids through the introduction of the terms
'restricted person', 'restricted employment' and the associated offences.
A restricted person is somebody who has been: convicted of a disqualifying
offence; issued with a negative notice; has had
their blue or exemption card suspended; or has been charged with a disqualifying
offence and the matter hasn't been finalised.
Restricted employment refers to situations that allow a person to work
with children without a blue or exemption card, such as:
a volunteer parent, a volunteer under the age of 18 years,
a person who works with children for not more than seven days in a calendar year,
or a person who receives services at a disability service centre
where services are provided to children. These penalties apply to: individuals who
start restricted employment as a restricted person, and organisations
who employ a restricted person in restricted employment. For example,
your organisation wants to employ a guest speaker to perform a motivational
presentation for a group of grade 12 students. The guest speaker advised that
they have previously been issued with a negative notice.
In this situation, the guest speaker is a restricted person.
Although the guest speaker is working not more than seven days in a calendar
year with children or young people, they cannot rely on the exemption. It
would be an offence for you to engage the guest speaker in
restricted employment. You can find out more about these
obligations by watching the video 'Managing high risk individuals for organisations'.
Your organisation must also maintain an accurate register of
individuals you engage which must include information
such as: whether they require a blue card, and if not, why not? For example,
an exemption may apply; the type of application or blue card.
For example, paid or volunteer or exemption card;
when the person applied and/or the date of issue of the card;
the card number and the expiry date of the blue card;
and the renewal date. An editable version of this employee register template is
available to download on our website. If you are using the Organisation Portal,
you can export the blue card holders into an editable version of the employee
register.
Finally, your organisation must contact us with any changes to your organisation
name, postal address, email address or phone
numbers and the details of the person or people
who manage your organisation's blue card matters. If you do not keep
your organisation details current, then your organisation runs the risk of
not being notified when a change to an individual's blue card status occurs,
and as mentioned, this may result in a risk of harm to the children in your
service environment, as well as your organisation potentially
committing an offence.
Thank you for taking the time to learn about the key obligations for
organisations under the blue card system. We hope you
found this video useful and we encourage you to watch the
remaining videos on offer from the Blue Card Services YouTube channel.
For more information, visit our website, phone our call centre or send us an email.