What qualifications should a nanny have in Australia? (2026 guide)

When looking at nanny qualifications in Australia, it can be surprisingly hard to know what should sit in the “must have” column. A working with children check? First aid? A childcare qualification? Ten years of experience and the remarkable ability to locate Bunny at bedtime?

The legal requirements for nannies are fairly limited, but most parents understandably want to look beyond the bare minimum when choosing someone to care for their children.

This guide separates what’s required from what’s strongly recommended, explains which qualifications are genuinely useful and shows you how to check that everything is current before your nanny starts. So you can spend less time deciphering certificates and more time working out whether this is someone your family will feel comfortable with.

What does Australian law actually require of a nanny?

Many parents are surprised to learn how few formal requirements apply to private nannies in Australia. A nanny does not need to hold a Certificate III, diploma or other childcare qualifications in Australia to work in a family home. 

What they do need is the relevant Working With Children Check (WWCC) or state or territory equivalent, for child-related work. The name varies around Australia, from a WWCC in Victoria and NSW to a Blue Card in Queensland,but each involves government screening to assess whether a person is cleared to work with children.

A police check can be useful as an additional safeguard, but it is not a substitute for a WWCC.

Before hiring a nanny, ask for their WWCC details and verify they are current through your state government portal. Victorian families can do this through Working With Children Check Victoria.

The minimum qualifications every nanny should hold

Working With Children Check (WWCC)

A current Working With Children Check, or your state or territory equivalent, is a legal requirement for nannies in Australia. It involves government screening of criminal history and other information relevant to a person’s suitability to work with children, and without it a nanny cannot legally work unsupervised with minors.

Ask for the nanny’s card or registration number and verify it directly through the relevant government portal rather than relying on a photocopy or certificate.

Before a nanny can become part of Gracie, their WWCC must be current. We verify the details as part of our safety-first approach, well before any family introductions begin.

A national police check, renewed every two years

A WWCC and a police check are not the same thing, and a good agency asks for both. A police check shows a person’s criminal history at the point it was run, giving families a second, independent layer of screening alongside the WWCC.

Because a police check is only ever a point-in-time snapshot, it’s worth asking how often an agency renews it. Most stop at the initial hire. Gracie re-runs a national police check on every nanny every two years, for as long as they remain part of our network, rather than relying on a check completed once, years earlier.

Current first aid and CPR certification

First aid training should be current and relevant to the age of the children in a nanny’s care. HLTAID012, Provide First Aid in an Education and Care Setting, is generally valid for three years, while CPR training such as HLTAID009 is renewed annually.

For nannies caring for babies and young children, a paediatric or emergency first aid component is strongly recommended. Look for training that specifically covers infant and child CPR, choking, seizures and other common childhood emergencies.

Ask to see the certificate and check the issue date. At Gracie, current first aid and CPR certification is required before a nanny can join our network.

A Kidsafe Australia child safety course

Beyond emergency response, a nanny also needs a practical understanding of how to prevent accidents before they happen. Kidsafe is Australia’s national child safety organisation, and its state bodies (Kidsafe Victoria, Kidsafe NSW and others) run training on everyday hazards in the home: safe sleep, water safety, choking and strangulation risks, poisoning, and safe transport in cars.

This is a different skill set to first aid. First aid tells a nanny what to do after something goes wrong; a Kidsafe course helps them recognise and remove the everyday hazards that lead to an incident in the first place, which matters most in the hours a nanny is unsupervised in your home. Every Gracie nanny completes a Kidsafe Australia course as part of their onboarding.

An anaphylaxis management course

Food allergies are common enough among Australian children that a dedicated anaphylaxis course, not just the general first aid module that briefly touches on it, is worth asking about directly. Training such as the ASCIA anaphylaxis e-training used across Australian schools and children’s services covers how to recognise an allergic reaction, use an adrenaline autoinjector correctly, and follow a child’s individual allergy action plan.

Given how quickly anaphylaxis can escalate, and how specific the response is (autoinjector technique, positioning, when to call an ambulance), Gracie treats this as its own standalone requirement rather than something covered in passing during a broader first aid course.

Formal childcare qualifications that are useful but not required

If a nanny also holds a Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care (CHC30121), that’s a wonderful extra to bring to the role. It means they’ve had formal training in areas such as child development, health and safety, supporting learning through play and planning age-appropriate activities. Diploma-level qualifications build on that knowledge even further.

These qualifications are not legally required for private nannies, but they can add real depth to someone’s experience and are worth asking about when comparing nanny training in Australia.

A highly experienced nanny without formal childcare qualifications, but with a current WWCC, strong professional references and years of practical experience, may still be the better choice over someone recently qualified with very little time caring for children independently. That’s why Gracie looks beyond qualifications alone when matching a family with a nanny, weighing up experience, references and how naturally the carer fits with your family.

How Gracie vets every nanny before placement

Every nanny Gracie puts forward has already met both the official requirements and the rigorous standards Grace has set for the agency.

The team checks each WWCC directly using the card number, confirms current first aid and CPR certification, verifies at least two years of documented nanny or childcare experience and speaks with professional referees who can give a genuine account of the nanny’s work.

Grace shaped these standards through her background as a registered nurse and years spent caring for children herself. She knows how much trust sits behind handing over the school run, nap time, pick-ups, cuddles and everything in between.

So by the time a Gracie nanny reaches your shortlist, the groundwork is already done. You’re meeting people with current qualifications, proven experience and references that have been properly checked, leaving you free to focus on the person who feels right for your family.

Find Your Nanny With Gracie

Finding a nanny with Gracie means you don’t have to build your own verification checklist or work out which questions you’ve forgotten to ask. By the time a nanny is introduced to your family, Gracie has already done the thorough checking behind the scenes.

Grace’s nursing background shapes that careful approach, with the support continuing after care begins. Have a chat with Gracie and let us help take the uncertainty out of finding someone you can trust with your family.

Frequently asked questions