Blue Cards
All Pharmacy students are required by the Queensland Government to hold a current Blue Card.
What is a Blue Card?
Blue Cards are issued by the Commission for Children and Young People and Child Guardian once it has carried out the Working with Children Check to see if a person is eligible to work in the areas of child-related work covered by the Commission’s Act. If a person is eligible, they are issued a positive notice letter and a Blue Card.
What is the Working with Children Check?
The Working with Children Check, also known as the Blue Card, is a detailed national criminal history check including:
- any charge or conviction for an offence, whether or not a conviction is recorded
- whether a person is a respondent to or subject to an application for a child protection prohibition order or disqualification order, or
- whether a person is subject to reporting obligations under the Child Protection (Offender Reporting) Act 2004.
The Commission also considers disciplinary information held by certain professional organisations for:
- teachers
- child care service providers
- foster carers
- nurses
- midwives, and
- certain health practitioners
In addition, information from police investigations into allegations of serious child-related sexual offenses will be taken into account, even if no charges were laid because the child was unwilling or unable to proceed. A person whose application is approved is issued with a positive notice letter and a blue card. If a person’s application is refused, they are issued with a negative notice which prohibits them from carrying on a business or providing child-related activities in the categories regulated by the Commission’s Act.