Working With Children Check (VIC)
A Working With Children Check (WWC) is the clearance a person must hold to do child-related work in Victoria. Victoria's register is operated through Service Victoria and the Department of Justice. Oho recognises it as a Victorian Working With Children Check and confirms it against the official register.
Who needs it
Anyone engaged in child-related work in Victoria — employees and volunteers alike. In Victoria the check is the worker's own responsibility; there is no formal employer linkage recorded against the card, so the obligation to keep it current sits with the holder rather than with you.
What Oho needs
The card or application number, plus the holder's name. Enter the number exactly as printed on the front of the WWC card, with no spaces.
1234567A — seven digits, sometimes followed by a single letter. If the card shows a renewal suffix like -03, you can include it or leave it off; Oho only checks the part before the hyphen.
The surname must match the name on the register. After a change of name the register may still hold the previous surname — supply the alternate name and run the check again.
Victoria's register matches on name and card number alone, so a date of birth isn't needed here. It's still worth holding: other credentials the same worker carries do need one.
Before you start
Nothing to set up. Oho queries the Victorian register directly and needs no portal account or credentials of yours.
How Oho verifies it
Oho queries the Victorian register in real time and returns a result in under ten seconds. Once verified, Oho re-checks it on the schedule you set in the Verification Sources tab, so a change in status is picked up without anyone re-checking it manually.
Reading the result
Every check resolves to one of these outcomes:
| Status (as shown in the app) | Colour | What it means | API value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Cleared, but worth a closer look — for example a condition on the clearance, a possible match, or an expiry coming up. | REVIEW_REQUIRED |
| In progress | Grey | Still being checked. | IN_PROGRESS |
| Error | Grey | The source couldn't be reached; Oho will try again. | ERROR |
When it doesn't verify
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| May not engage — no record found | The number doesn't match a card on the register, or the surname doesn't match it. | Check the number against the card. If the worker has changed name, add the alternate name and re-run. |
| May not engage — expired | The card's validity period has passed. | The holder renews with Service Victoria. Oho picks the renewal up on its own — see below. |
| Under review | The clearance carries a condition worth a person looking at before you rely on it. | Open the worker's profile and read the check detail before engaging them in child-related work. |
| In progress for longer than usual | The register is slow to answer, or the card was issued very recently. | Leave it — Oho retries on its own. A brand-new card can take a day or so to appear on the register. |
| Error | Oho couldn't reach the register. | Nothing. Oho retries automatically, and the outcome updates when the register answers. |
Renewals & monitoring
Renewals flow through automatically. When the holder renews, the updated card details and expiry are reflected in Oho on their own — the base number stays the same and only the renewal suffix changes, which Oho ignores.
Between renewals, Oho re-checks the card daily and updates the outcome if the register's answer changes. The worker's profile keeps a history of every check, so you can see when a status changed and what it changed from.
Victoria does not record an employer against the check, so the worker carries the obligation to keep it current. Oho's monitoring still surfaces any change for your records.