Case Study: Managing Working With Children Checks (Australia)
About the author...
Luke was a youth worker at a large Vineyard church in the UK and is now part of the ChurchSuite customer support team, supporting Australian churches using ChurchSuite. In this case study, he explores how to use ChurchSuite to manage Working With Children Check renewals for those serving in your church, and how to keep on top of renewals in line with federal law for those volunteering in roles involving Children.
Introduction
Churches and organisations in Australia will need to store details of a Working with Children Check (WWCC), for those working with children and young people. Using Custom Fields and Flows, you're able to manage both the storage of that data and receive timely reminders when an individual needs to renew their check - all while keeping an historical record of previous checks.
In this article
Storing WWCC Data
Managing WWCC Renewals
Using Smart Tags to identify those needing a check
Storing WWCC Data
For each person needing a check, you'll likely need to store the check number, the verification date (as well as who verified it) and the expiry date.
For the WWCC number, and the expiry date, we'd recommend using a Custom Field. In your Address Book (and Children module if applicable), create a Single Sentence field for the check number and a date field for the expiry date:
Using a custom field means that that information is visible directly on a person's profile, easily accessible when you need it.
Top Tip! Using Pinned Tags...
A great way to have an immediate view of whether or not someone has a valid WWCC check is to use a Smart Tag to group everyone together with a valid check. In the example below, the tag will automatically group everyone with a number whose expiry date isn't in the past, using the data in your WWCC Custom Fields:
Once created, set it as Pinned and choose an appropriate symbol (see our related article on Smart Tags). Once done, you'll see that tag appear next to the persons name when viewing their profile, perhaps when checking if they're able to fill in on your Kids roster this Sunday:
Managing WWCC Renewals
Once a WWCC reaches the expiry date supplied by the Government, the individual will need to renew it. A Flow is a great way to track when a check needs renewing and send reminders to the person concerned. If it's helpful, you might use our off-the-shelf Example WWCC Renewal flow. Let's look at how that Flow would be setup.
In our example above, we've created a flow which begins when someone's WWCC check is 8 weeks away from expiring. We then proceed to send a reminder 4, 3, 2 and 1 week(s) before the check expires. Once the check has been verified, the person then cycles back to the 8 week reminder stage and becomes due 4 years and 10 months later. In your own church, you might customise the time periods to suit your reminder periods. Let's see how that works in practice.
In this Flow, Gavin has become due - meaning their WWCC expires in 2 months. When Gavin reached their due date, Luke, as the flow Manager, has received an email reminder notifying them that Gavin now needs to renew their WWCC check.
Luke now navigates to the WWCC Renewal flow and clicks Process. At each of our reminder stages, the flow has three simple actions - the first two are: moving the person to the next reminder stage and sending them a preset reminder email:
Top Tip! Automating your WWCC Flow...
For the reminder stages of your WWCC Flow, where no human intervention is necessary during the process, you may choose to automate the sending of a reminder email, so that when the action becomes due a reminder email is sent automatically:
In this stage, the actions are concerned with recording the new information:
At this stage, once Luke has verified Gavin's new check, they'll process each of those actions - firstly, moving Gavin back to the reminder stage, setting the due date as 8 weeks before the expiry date (manually calculated). Then, Luke will use the Edit Custom Field action to add Gavin's new WWCC number and expiry date (which will automatically be updated on Gavin's profile when Luke clicks Process), the flow will also add a Key Date, so you have an historical record of each time a WWCC check for Gavin has been verified. In the Key Date description, Luke can add details of who verified the check if appropriate or required.
The process is now complete - when Gavin becomes due again in 4 years and 10 months time, Luke will receive a further reminder. If at any point Gavin no longer needs a WWCC, Luke can simply remove them from the flow.
Using Smart Tags to identify those needing a check
Smart Tags are a powerful tool to identify those needing a WWCC check and also to ensure that everyone serving in your children/youth ministries has an active check. In our example, we've created a smart tag to group together everyone serving on rosters attached to our King's Kid & Youth ministry (in the Rosters module).
You could then add a further condition - looking for those who require a WWCC check and whose expiry date is in the past (i.e. their check has expired). In theory, this tag should always have 0 people in it, however a periodic (perhaps weekly) check to ensure that nobody has been missed ensures your data is always up to date and only people who have an active check are serving in those ministries.
