Setting up child safety, start to finish

• Forms must be on. Open Settings and switch on Forms & Records — the check form lives there.
• Seed the check types. On Credentials → Credential types, use “Seed the Australian WWCC types” so the NSW type and the others exist. This also creates the Child-safety officer qualification you’ll use later.
• Have your register to hand, if you already keep one — a spreadsheet export is fine. You’ll import it in step 7.

It’s common to make the WWCC form from its template a few times, or import a Turnout set twice, before realising the first copy already exists. Clear that up first so you’re working with one of each.

• Duplicate forms. Each form in the list shows “Created by … — Last changed by …”. Keep the copy the officer actually edited (its last changed is later than its created), and archive the rest (form → Edit → Status → Archived). Archived forms keep their history and can be restored; they drop out of the main list behind “Show archived”.
• The warning is expected. Making a form from a template, importing a bundle, or starting a Turnout event from a set now warns when copies already exist — it lists them with Open links, and “Create another copy anyway” is a deliberate second click.
• A Turnout event made by mistake (still a draft, no registrations) can be removed from the event page’s Danger zone. Its forms can’t be deleted while the event uses them — the message says so — so delete the event first, then the forms. Never delete the active event that holds real registrations; its forms show a submissions count.

Positions are qualifications marked Child-safety position. They drive who needs a check, who gets reminders, the tags beside names, and the purposes the check form offers. Create them under Members → Qualifications.

• Spell each label exactly as your register does if you’ll import it — e.g. “Sunday School Teacher”, “Youth Activities”, “Management Committee”. The import only accepts purposes that match a position (or its reported purpose).
• For a position whose holders need a check, tick Child-safety position and Holders need a current WWCC. Leave Reported purpose blank to use the label itself.
• A position that doesn’t need a check (e.g. a casual event helper): tick Child-safety position, untick Holders need a current WWCC, and set Reported purpose to what the register calls it (e.g. Other). Their checks stay on file and they’re tagged, but they aren’t chased.
• The officer position: don’t create a second “Child Safety Officer”. Edit the existing one (seeded in step 1), make it a position, and give it a reported purpose matching your register — the child-safety setting points at that entry.
• Positions can’t be self-assignable; that switch is disabled.

Open Settings → Child safety.

• Who can see full check numbers. “Administrators and designated people” lets holders of the designated officer qualification reveal numbers and dates of birth. Each reveal is logged and needs a recently re-confirmed sign-in; you can also require a second factor.
• Child-safe policy link. Your ecclesia’s policy page — shown on the credentials screens and in every reminder.
• Alert addresses. The officer’s shared mailbox, if any (up to five). It receives the “awaiting verification” and expiry alerts — never a number or a date of birth.
• Check purposes. Once positions exist, this list is replaced by the positions’ purposes and the screen says so, with a link to Qualifications. The editable list is kept behind a disclosure and only applies again if every position is removed.
• Reminder schedule. How many days before expiry to nudge — e.g. 90, 60, 30.
• Keep reminding until submitted. Set “Then remind every 7 days” for a weekly nudge. The summary line below should read “…90, 60 and 30 days before expiry, then weekly until submitted”. The common slip is putting the 7 in Follow up after expiry instead — the summary line is how you catch it. Leave Follow up after expiry at 14; once the weekly repeat is on, it simply carries on past expiry.

On the officer’s profile → Qualifications, add Child Safety Officer. The tag appears beside their name; they then receive the officer alerts and can reveal numbers and dates of birth.

Make it once from New from template → Working With Children Check details (or keep the copy from step 2). Then:

• On the Purpose of the check question, click “Use the child-safety purposes”. Its options become the positions’ purposes — alphabetical, read-only, and kept in step with the positions by themselves. Save and reload to see the server’s options; an unsaved builder still shows the old ones.
• Make the question Multiple choice (tick boxes) so someone in two positions can tick both. Copies made from older templates may be single choice.
• Put any explanation of a position in the question’s help text (e.g. “Youth Activities: committee, event coordination, hosting”). The option names must stay the position names, so what people tick matches the register.
• Leave it Draft until the officer is happy; you’ll activate it and turn on its public link in step 9.

Open Credentials → Credential types → NSW Working With Children Check and set the Renewal form to the form from step 6. The picker lists draft and active forms only, each labelled with its status, who made it and when — so identical copies are easy to tell apart (an archived form can’t be chosen).

A note tells you reminders link to the form only once it’s active with a public link; until then they link to the person’s own credentials screen.

If you already keep a register, import it under Credentials → Import. Upload the spreadsheet — only the first tab is read.

• Default credential type: the WWCC type. Then leave “Credential type code” on (ignore) — it’s marked “Not needed” once a default is chosen. Mapping a purpose column there makes every row fail with “unknown credential type code”.
• Map Person’s email, Reference number (the check number) and Expires on.
• Also import whatever your sheet has: Date verified, Verification outcome (CLEARED / RENEWED count as cleared; extra wording is kept as a note), Purposes (comma-separated, each must match a position), Start date, Type of work, First name / Last name (for a register that splits names), and Date of birth (kept sealed, shown only on reveal; Excel dates are fine).
• Shared family emails: if two rows share an email but name different people, those rows are matched by name. Each person must be in the app under that name, or the row errors and says so — rather than filing the check on the wrong person.
• Read the preview before Record. Expected errors: outcomes the register doesn’t record, emails that match nobody, and purposes that aren’t positions. Fix the people or positions and re-import — a re-import updates rather than duplicating, and error rows are skipped.

Cleared rows grant the positions named in their purposes automatically (never one that grants app access), and every imported row gets a history entry and an audit event naming the import.

Anyone holding a position without an imported check — a new youth helper, say — gets it on their profile → Qualifications. That’s what starts their reminders; removing a position stops them straight away. The tags show beside names in the people list, on profiles, and on the register (which shows current positions, as well as what each check was lodged for).

Set the WWCC form Active and turn on its public link. Reminders then go out by email — including to people without a login, at their profile email — and in the app, linking straight to the form. A submission files into the register as pending; the officer gets an in-app alert plus an email to the alert addresses.

The officer’s running work, covered in full in the officer guide:

• Verify a pending check (verified-on date, outcome, and “Also add these positions”, ticked by default for a cleared check).
• Reveal shows the full number and the date of birth for the portal.
• Request checks by position, Compliance by role or position, and each person’s history with a printable PDF for audits.
• Doorman. To let someone take attendance without managing it, start a Doorman role from the roles template and assign it. A Doorman sees the Door — the day’s check-in sessions, with check-in and undo — but can’t switch attendance tracking on or off, or open form records.