do you want to establish a children's service?
Having familiarised yourself with the information provided in the introduction section of this site, you are now ready to commence making preparations for your licence application.
At this stage you should understand:
- the matters covered by the Act and Regulation
- the roles of different levels of government
- the role of licensees for the type of children’s service you wish to establish
- some of the specific information and documentation you’ll need to provide with your licence application.
Before you proceed further, DoCS recommends that you also read and understand the Working with Children Check
Information about where to obtain this publication is provided in the resources & links section of this site.
The preparations section provides information about:
- initial planning of your service
- selecting a site for your premises
- what building plans you need
- how you advertise notice of making an application
- what criminal history check DoCS will undertake
- what building plans and development applications you need to lodge
- lodging building plans and building applications to local council
- when you need to notify DoCS of local council building approval
- when you can recruit an authorised supervisor
- how DoCS assesses and approves an authorised supervisor
- how you develop your plan to establish and operate a children’s service
- when DoCS undertakes a licensing inspection
- when local council issues a certificate of occupation
- when DoCS issues your licence
- when you can open your children’s service
You can read about each of these by using the navigation menu on the left-hand side. These topics are relevant to all types of children’s service. Where appropriate, information relating to different types of children’s service is also provided.
The next page provides information about what things you should consider when initially planning your service.