business.gov.au

Statutory Out-of-Home Care Agency Accreditation - New South Wales

Description

You will need this accreditation if your organisation intends to provide statutory out-of-home care services for children and young people in New South Wales (NSW).

Statutory out-of-home care is when the NSW Children’s Court has made an order allocating parental responsibility for a child or young person to the Minister for Community Services.

There are two different types of accreditation:

  • provisional (three years)
  • full (one, three or five years)

Service type

Licence

A licence defines the need to obtain recognition / certification and registration to undertake a certain business activity.

Eligibility requirements

To apply for accreditation, an agency must first contact the Office of the Children’s Guardian to discuss the proposed application.

To be eligible for provisional accreditation, your organisation must:

  • be an entity (individual persons such as a sole trader is not eligible)
  • provide indirect and direct evidence to confirm you are meeting the Standards in practice
  • not be currently accredited
  • not have made any arrangements for the provision of statutory out-of-home care or adoption services during the 12 months prior to applying for accreditation or accreditation renewal

To be eligible for full accreditation, your organisation must:

  • provide indirect and direct evidence to confirm you are meeting the Standards in practice
  • currently be accredited and due for accreditation renewal
  • have provided statutory out-of-home care and/or adoption services during the 12 months prior to applying for accreditation renewal

Examples of indirect evidence are:

  • policies and procedures
  • template documents used to implement policies and procedures such as forms, letters, checklists and training
  • service agreements
  • publications such as annual reports and strategic plans

Direct evidence is information that shows how an organisation meets the Standards through its practice and how it implements its policies and procedures.

Ongoing eligibility requirements

As an accredited statutory out-of-home care provider, your organisation must comply with all the conditions of accreditation issued by the Children's Guardian.

Duration

The provisional accreditation period is three years. The full accreditation period can be one, three or five years.

Fees

Fees Details for this service in table format.

Task Type Business Structure Description
Apply Application All

Please consult the Contact Officer for information on fees to be submitted.

Application process

Apply

Your organisation can apply to the Office of the Children's Guardian for accreditation to provide statutory out-of-home care services in NSW. If your organisation is not already accredited, it may be granted provisional accreditation. Provisional accreditation will involve an assessment of your organisation's statutory out-of-home care policies and procedures (indirect evidence).

When your organisation is provisionally accredited and has commenced providing statutory out-of-home care services, it may be eligible to apply for full accreditation following an evidence based assessment of its statutory out-of-home care practice (direct evidence).

Transfer

You may apply to the Office of the Children's Guardian to transfer your accreditation to another eligible organisation. The Office must give its express written authorisation before a transfer can take place.

Administering agency

NSW Office of the Children's Guardian

Contact details

Contact Email, Phone and Address Details for this service in simple two column table format, header then data.