Ochre Card (NT)
CodesAPI credentialType WWCC_NTSpreadsheet import wwcc with State NTAll credential codes
The Northern Territory's Working With Children Check is the Ochre Card, administered by SAFE NT. Oho confirms it against SAFE NT's public Check Validity page.
Who needs it
Anyone engaged in child-related work in the Northern Territory, employees and volunteers alike.
What Oho needs
The clearance notice number, plus the holder's given name and surname — both, not just a surname. No date of birth.
1234567 — the clearance notice number as printed on the card.
Enter it exactly as it appears. Oho doesn't reformat it beyond trimming spaces, so a number that works on SAFE NT's own page will work here, and one that doesn't won't.
SAFE NT stores names in upper case and matches on them literally, so Oho upper-cases the names before submitting. You don't need to do anything about that — enter names normally.
Before you start
Nothing to configure for your organisation. The Check Validity page is public and there's no employer linkage recorded against an Ochre Card.
The page is protected by an image captcha, which Oho reads automatically. That's why an NT check takes a minute or two rather than seconds.
How Oho verifies it
Oho solves the captcha on SAFE NT's Check Validity page, submits the given name, surname and clearance notice number, and reads the answer back.
Where a first attempt finds no match, Oho retries using the worker's alternate or preferred name as the surname, paired with the same given name — so a card held under a previous surname is usually found without anyone intervening. The names that matched are recorded on the check.
Reading the result
Every check resolves to one of these outcomes:
| Status (as shown in the app) | Colour | What it means | API value (eligibility) |
|---|---|---|---|
| May engage | Green | Valid and current — the person is cleared for the work. | MAY_ENGAGE |
| May not engage | Red | Not valid — expired, suspended, not found, or a match on a ban register. | MAY_NOT_ENGAGE |
| Under review | Yellow | No decision yet — someone has to read the result and record one. Not a softer kind of pass: the worker counts as non-compliant until they do. | REVIEW_REQUIRED |
| In progress | Blue | Still being checked. | IN_PROGRESS |
| Couldn't verify | Grey | The source couldn't be reached; Oho will try again. | ERROR |
Validity and expiry are tracked separately from that verdict, and the badge always shows the most serious state on record — so these appear instead of one of the five above:
| Status (as shown in the app) | Colour | What it means | API value (statusDetail) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expiring soon | Yellow | Still valid, but inside your expiry lead time — 30 days by default. Time to get the renewal moving. | EXPIRING_SOON |
| Expired | Red | The expiry date has passed, so the worker is no longer covered. | EXPIRED |
| Conditions to review | Yellow | The register attached a condition or a notation that someone has to read and decide on. | CONDITIONS_TO_REVIEW |
| Pending decision | Blue | The issuing authority has yet to decide on an application. | PENDING_DECISION |
A problem the register reports outright — the clearance revoked, no matching record, a newer card superseding this one — shows under its own name in red or grey, alongside the same statusDetail value. Every one of them is listed in what a check result means.
SAFE NT answers in prose rather than a status code, which Oho reads as follows:
| What the register says | What Oho shows | Why |
|---|---|---|
Valid to <date>, date ahead | May engage | Current clearance. The expiry date comes back with it |
Valid to <date>, within 90 days | May engage | Current, but flagged as expiring — see below |
Valid to <date>, date passed | May not engage | The clearance has run out |
Invalid | May not engage | SAFE NT doesn't recognise this clearance as current |
| No matches found | May not engage | Nothing on the register matched these details |
| Anything else | Under review | Wording Oho doesn't recognise |
An Ochre Card within 90 days of expiry is flagged as expiring while still reading as May engage. That's a wider window than Oho's general 30-day expiry warning, and it's deliberate: Ochre Card renewals can take a while to come back, so the early notice is worth having.
When it doesn't verify
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| May not engage — no matches found | The notice number, given name or surname didn't match, after an alternate-name retry | Check all three against the card. Both name parts matter here, not just the surname |
| May not engage — invalid | SAFE NT holds the clearance but doesn't consider it current | Not a data problem. The worker needs to sort it out with SAFE NT |
| May not engage — expired | The card's validity date has passed | The holder renews with SAFE NT; the renewed card keeps its number and flows through |
| Flagged as expiring three months out | Expected — NT uses a 90-day warning window | Nothing, but it's a good prompt to start the renewal |
| Couldn't verify — no result panel | SAFE NT's page changed or was unreachable | Nothing. Oho retries on the next run; raise it with support if it persists |
| Checks slower than other states | Expected — the image captcha is the cost | Nothing |
Renewals & monitoring
Renewals flow through automatically. A renewed Ochre Card keeps its clearance notice number, and SAFE NT returns the new validity date with each check, so Oho's expiry tracking stays accurate without you maintaining it.
There's no employer linkage, so nothing pushes a change to you — NT monitoring is Oho's scheduled re-checks alone. The 90-day expiring flag is the main thing NT gives you that other states don't, and it's worth routing to whoever chases renewals.