Working with Kids Register: NSW CCYP
About the Client
The NSW Commission for Children and Young People is an independent statutory organisation within the state government that advocates for the children and young people of New South Wales.
The Challenges
Self employed persons working with children must have any criminal history verified before they are permitted to do so. The problem posed is one of issuing certificates efficiently which employers or parents can use to verify that a potential employee is not prohibited from engaging in child-related employment. Prior to the online register Police checks and certification were a manual, time consuming process resulting in frustration for all stakeholders including parents.
The whole certificate business system must be such that it:
Provides a convenient way for applicants to apply and pay for their certificates (at their local police station) and receive those certificates.
Allows Police to run criminal checks on applicants in all jurisdictions in Australia and send that information with the application to CCYP.
Allows CCYP to easily access application records, record their assessments and deliver the results.
Provide a convenient and foolproof way for employers to verify the certificates as valid.
Provides high security to ensure system integrity.
One of the primary challenges encountered at the outset of the project was the absence of a clearly defined workflow or user experience (UX) determined by the client. This posed a significant risk, as the success of the entire project hinged on establishing a robust foundation for both the workflow and UX aspects.
The Solution - Online Certificate and Register for self employed people working with children.
PretaGov undertook an extensive discovery phase to meticulously outline more than 20 scenarios covering a broad spectrum of use cases. This comprehensive process carefully documented all relevant actors, such as applicants, Police records systems, and employers, along with the intricate workflows essential for the successful implementation of the legislation.
Drawing from this initial requirements document, PretaGov engaged in collaborative codesign sessions with key stakeholders to ensure the seamless development of the system.
The development phase resulted in a public facing website that allowed the submission of certificate applications and online verfication of valid certificates. This interfaced with an internal web application that verifies the criminal records of self-employed persons which is workflowed via 12 states managed by various internal CCYP staff.
The system subsequently issues certificates or rejection notices. The solution interfaces with NSW Police records to verify relevant criminal history. Extensive "sunny" and "rainy" day (exceptions) use cases were indentified to ensure workflow was implemented to move the application through the system without delays or issues.
Quality assurance was assured with inbuilt unit testing and doc testing framework to identify and rectify bugs.
The technology stack and methodologies used during development covers:...Dylan to fill in.
On-going support and maintenance is carried out for their dedicated server.
Technically the solution covered:
- integration with Police criminal records database
- eforms workflow for public certification applications
- UX design processes to understand the workflow
- Watertight security dealing with senstitive personal data such as ID documents and police check information.
Major Outcomes
Provided online verification that the self employed person has Police clearance to work with children.
Digitised and streamlined the manual process for police clearance applications and the issuing of certificates.
In summary, PretaGov developed a secure web application that allowed:
Police to register applicants wishing to work with children.
A means to run criminal checks on applicants in all jurisdictions in Australia and sends that information to the system.
Online access to application records, recording of assessments and delivery of results.
Online means for employers to verify paper certificates as valid.
Please contact us if you are interested in learning more.