Is a Working With Children Check enough for a pet sitter?

No. A WWCC (or Blue Card in Queensland, DCSI clearance in SA, etc.) is designed to assess suitability for roles involving children, not pets. It uses different criteria, covers different risk factors, and was not designed for the pet care context. An ACIC national police check is the appropriate screening document for a pet sitter.

Can I request to see a walker's background check certificate?

For privately arranged services, yes — and it is a reasonable request. For platform bookings, the platform should hold this on your behalf. TruePath verifies checks before a walker is activated on the platform, so you do not need to request the certificate directly.

Do police checks expire?

Police checks do not technically expire, but they are point-in-time documents — they reflect the person's record on the date the check was issued. Most employment guidance in Australia recommends refreshing checks every 1–3 years. TruePath requires walkers to maintain current checks, not just a one-time clearance on signup.

What if a walker's check comes back with a result?

A disclosed outcome on a check does not automatically disqualify a walker — it depends on what the offence was, when it occurred, and its relevance to the role. What matters is that the platform applies a real assessment process, not that every check returns clean. TruePath reviews disclosed outcomes as part of its application process.

Does TruePath check interstate records?

Yes. TruePath uses an ACIC national check, which draws on criminal records from all Australian states and territories. This is why a national check matters — state-level checks only return records from that state.

Trust & safety

Background Checks for Pet Sitters in Australia — What to Look For

Not all pet sitter platforms require the same checks — and the differences matter. Here's what a proper background check involves, how Australian state checks vary, and how to verify a walker before you book.

By atticus · 8 min read · Last updated 18 May 2026

A proper background check for a pet sitter in Australia means an ACIC national criminal history check — not a self-declared statement, and not a Working With Children Check, which covers a different purpose entirely.

Key takeaways

The ACIC (Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) national police check is the appropriate check for pet sitters — it covers criminal history across all Australian states and territories.
Working With Children Checks (WWCC, Blue Card, DCSI clearance) are for people working with minors, not pet sitters — they are not a substitute for a police check.
TruePath requires a mandatory ACIC criminal background check plus identity document verification for every walker on the platform.
Mad Paws and Pawshake do not publish mandatory police check requirements in their public-facing sitter verification policies.
Ask any platform — or any private walker — to confirm whether their check was issued by an accredited ACIC-authorised organisation and when it was last completed.
A check is only as useful as how recently it was done — a check from 5 years ago has limited value.

What is the ACIC national police check?

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) is the federal body that manages national criminal history checking in Australia. An ACIC-accredited check draws on criminal records from all Australian states and territories — it is not limited to one state.

Checks are available through:

Australian Federal Police (AFP) — for AFP employees and some specific categories
ACIC-accredited private organisations such as CRIMTRAC-accredited providers, Fit2Work, CVCheck, and National Crime Check — these are the most common route for employment and platform screening

A standard ACIC check returns disclosed outcomes where a conviction, finding of guilt, or charge exists in the national database. It does not cover offences that were dealt with informally, expunged records, or offences committed overseas.

Crucially: an ACIC check is national. A single state-level check (e.g., a NSW Police check) only returns records from NSW. If a person lived in Queensland for ten years before moving to NSW, only an ACIC check will catch Queensland records.

What a police check does and does not cover

Does cover:

Convictions across all Australian states and territories
Findings of guilt (including spent convictions in some contexts, depending on jurisdiction)
Pending charges

Does not cover:

Overseas criminal history
Records that have been formally spent or suppressed under state spent convictions legislation
Incidents that were investigated but resulted in no charge
Mental health or welfare orders

This means a check is a meaningful filter, not an absolute guarantee. It should be one component of a broader vetting process — alongside identity verification, reference checks, and a direct meeting.

Working With Children Checks — what they are and what they are not

Australia has several WWCC-equivalent schemes, varying by state:

State/Territory	Scheme name	Issuing body
Victoria	Working With Children Check (WWCC)	Department of Justice and Community Safety
New South Wales	Working With Children Check (WWCC)	NSW Office of the Children's Guardian
Queensland	Blue Card	Blue Card Services
Western Australia	Working With Children (WWC) Check	Department of Communities
South Australia	DHS Screening (formerly DCSI Clearance)	Department of Human Services
Tasmania	Registration to Work with Vulnerable People	Department of Justice
ACT	Working With Vulnerable People (WWVP)	Access Canberra
Northern Territory	Ochre Card	NT Government

Heads up

A Working With Children Check is designed to assess suitability for roles involving unsupervised access to children. It is not equivalent to, nor a substitute for, a general criminal history check for pet sitters. If you are hiring a walker who also works in childcare, they should ideally hold both a WWCC/Blue Card and an ACIC police check — these check for different things against different criteria.

WWCC schemes assess criminal and disciplinary history specifically in the context of child safety. They use risk-based assessments and may disqualify people who would pass a general police check. But they also do not screen broadly for the kinds of offences most relevant to pet sitting contexts.

For a pet sitter, what you want is an ACIC national police check, full stop.

Identity verification: the check before the check

A criminal history check is only useful if it is matched to the correct person. Identity verification — confirming that the person presenting themselves is who they claim to be — is a prerequisite.

Meaningful identity verification involves:

Government-issued photo ID (passport or driver's licence)
A secondary document (Medicare card, utility bill, bank statement)
Document validation against a real-time identity verification service (not just a photo upload)

TruePath uses document upload with identity verification tooling as part of walker onboarding. This is what links the background check result to the actual person you see on the platform.

How platforms compare

Feature	Verification type	TruePath	Mad Paws
Identity document verification	Yes — verified via document upload	Profile photo required; document verification not specified	Profile photo required; document verification not specified
ACIC national criminal check	Mandatory for all walkers	Not listed as a mandatory requirement in published policies	Not listed as a mandatory requirement in published policies
Check verified by platform	Yes — platform-verified before activation	Self-disclosed; verification not confirmed in public policy	Self-disclosed; verification not confirmed in public policy
Reference checks	Yes — 2 references minimum	Reviews from previous clients on profile	Reviews from previous clients on profile
In-person assessment	Yes — meet-and-greet before first booking	Not required	Not required

Background check approach by platform (based on published verification policies as of May 2026)

FYI

Mad Paws and Pawshake publish that sitters can voluntarily complete background checks or add them to their profiles. This is meaningfully different from a mandatory platform-verified check. A self-declared check that the platform does not verify is difficult to authenticate.

Questions to ask before booking any pet sitter

Whether you are booking through a platform or hiring privately, these are reasonable questions to ask:

"Has your background check been completed through an ACIC-accredited provider?" The answer should be yes, and they should be able to name the provider (Fit2Work, CVCheck, National Crime Check, etc.) or show you the certificate.

"When was the check done?" A check older than two years has limited currency. Criminal history checks are a point-in-time snapshot.

"Was your check verified by the platform, or did you self-declare it?" Platform-verified means someone at the platform reviewed the actual certificate. Self-declared means they checked a box.

"Can you share your check certificate?" A legitimate check produces a certificate. Sharing it (with sensitive details redacted) is a reasonable request for a private arrangement. On a platform like TruePath, the platform holds this verification so you do not need to request it directly.

The 35% rejection rate matters

One number that illustrates whether a verification process is real: TruePath rejects approximately 35% of walker applicants. A rejection rate that high is only possible if checks actually surface disqualifying information or if standards are genuinely applied. Platforms with no or optional checks do not have a meaningful rejection rate because there is no hurdle to fail.

A platform where essentially anyone can list as a sitter is not running a vetting process — it is running a marketplace.

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