As schools and childcare centres reopen for the new year, many HR and centre leaders are already feeling the pressure to fill roles quickly. Teacher shortages have become a defining challenge across the sector and they’re not easing any time soon. Research from the Australian Education Union shows that 58.1% of Australian principals report a teacher shortage, more than double the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of 24.9%.
At the same time, 39% of teachers and school leaders say they intend to leave the profession before retirement. It’s a difficult environment to hire in and the temptation to speed through screening is very real.
This is exactly why 2026 needs to be a year of strengthening, not simplifying, your vetting processes. When hiring people who work with children and vulnerable communities, safe decision-making is not just best practice. It’s a responsibility.
When staffing shortages collide with rushed hiring, the risk increases. Over the past year, several media reports have highlighted cases where educators slipped through the cracks because checks were incomplete or concerns weren’t shared or escalated.
In one Victorian case, a childcare worker who had been blacklisted was still able to keep a valid Working with Children Check due to gaps in information-sharing across the system. In another high-profile investigation, a former childcare worker faced dozens of charges after earlier concerns about his conduct weren’t acted on, allowing him to move between centres undetected.
These incidents weren’t the result of one error; they were a combination of missed steps and assumptions. And they reinforce a key lesson for 2026: no single check can give you the full picture. A Working with Children Check (WWCC), a police check or a qualification on its own won’t always reflect behavioural or professional risk.
Safe hiring is about creating layers of protection. Combining identity verification, qualification checks, reference checks, digital footprint reviews and right-to-work validation helps your team build a more complete understanding of a candidate. It also supports consistency across your organisation and gives families confidence that you’re taking child safety seriously, even in a challenging hiring environment.
Most school and childcare leaders already know the hiring environment is tough, but the data shows just how complex it’s become. High turnover means more frequent recruitment cycles, and more churn means more opportunities for risk to slip through the cracks. With international hiring continuing to rise, verifying identity, qualifications and right to work is now a critical part of everyday compliance.
For many centres, the challenge isn’t whether screening is happening; it’s that it isn’t happening consistently. Renewals get missed. Checks sit in different systems or email chains. When teams are stretched or trying to fill roles quickly, the risk of skipping steps grows.
That’s why 2026 needs to be a year of clarity and consistency. A layered screening process helps your team reduce risk, strengthen decision-making and build confidence, without slowing hiring down. When every role matters, a structured approach to vetting helps protect your organisation and the communities you support.
A valid WWCC is essential for anyone working with children. But the key is not just sighting the clearance; it’s verifying it through the official state or territory portal and ensuring you have a process in place for renewals.
This is where many of the recent cases in the media began: an expired check, or one that wasn’t validated properly at the time of onboarding.
A WWCC helps reduce risk, but it must be part of a broader screening approach.
Identity checks are often the first line of defence. They confirm that the person you’re hiring is who they say they are, which is particularly important in a market where qualification fraud and identity misrepresentation are increasing globally.
A strong identity check should confirm:
In education and childcare settings, identity is foundational. Everything else builds from this point.
With shortages increasing, qualification inflation and falsification can become more common. Verifying professional qualifications helps ensure the degrees, certifications and registrations a candidate lists are genuine.
This is especially important given media reports from 2025, where unqualified individuals were hired into education and early learning roles. A simple check may have prevented those situations from developing.
For teachers, this typically includes verifying:
It’s one of the clearest ways to help protect your organisation from risk.
Reference checks remain one of the most insightful tools in safe hiring, particularly in education and early learning, where previous workplace behaviour can offer valuable context about how a candidate may approach their work.
A well-run reference check can help your team understand:
This is also where early warning signs can emerge. Many of the cases reported in the media involved concerns that former employers did not escalate or document, meaning they never appeared in formal screening systems. Reference checks help fill those gaps and reduce the risk of behavioural surprises after onboarding.
Digital footprint checks are becoming a standard part of safer hiring, particularly in sectors working with vulnerable communities. An Advanced Digital Footprint Check reviews a candidate’s publicly available online information to identify any behavioural or reputational risks that traditional checks may not capture.
This is where things like concerning social media activity, harassment, hate speech or public boundary issues can surface. The goal isn’t to police a candidate’s life; it’s to help your team identify areas that may need clarification before moving ahead.
An NCCHC (police check) provides insight into any disclosable court outcomes or charges.
It can help your team access broader details and build a more complete picture of suitability. It’s particularly helpful for roles involving high levels of access, responsibility or trust.
With many businesses now hiring internationally, verifying a candidate’s right to work in Australia is essential. This includes confirming visa conditions through the Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) system.
A Right to Work check helps ensure that:
It’s a small step that can help protect your organisation from compliance breaches.
Strengthening screening doesn’t mean slowing everything down. What it means is creating clarity and consistency, especially when your hiring team is stretched or dealing with fast-moving recruitment cycles.
Most organisations find that when they map out their current checks, gaps appear, not in intent but in process. Maybe renewals aren’t monitored. Maybe checks live in email chains. Maybe certain roles don’t require the same documentation.
Your team can reduce risk significantly by:
These steps help build trust. And in sectors like working with children, trust is everything.
Teacher and educator shortages will continue to shape the sector in 2026. But they don’t have to shape the quality or safety of your hiring decisions.
By committing to a layered, thoughtful and consistent approach to screening, your organisation can:
As hiring becomes more complex, having a central place to manage your checks can make a real difference. Referoo Hub helps streamline identity verification, qualification checks, references and compliance documentation, giving your team a clear audit trail and reducing the risk of missed steps during busy periods.
Recruitment pressures may be high, but so is the responsibility we hold when hiring into schools and childcare centres. Safe hiring isn’t about ticking boxes; it’s about protecting the children, families and communities who rely on us.