What to do before you apply for consent

Talk to us in advance

If you propose to subcontract any part or all of the services we’ve contracted you to deliver, you must discuss it with your DCJ contract manager before you apply for our consent.

If you are proposing to subcontract all the services, you’ve been contracted to deliver, this would be a concern to DCJ. You are required to demonstrate why you can no longer deliver the services and discuss this with your DCJ contract manager.

This gives you an opportunity to discuss the proposed arrangements and ensure you fully understand the additional responsibilities and obligations of subcontracting.

Carry out your due diligence

Each third party you propose to subcontract must be capable of delivering the agreed services on your behalf, on terms and conditions consistent with those you’ve agreed in the contract with us.

It’s important to understand that if consent is granted, you’ll be responsible for the performance of any third party you subcontract to deliver the services.

For this reason, it’s important you carry out the necessary due diligence before making any legally binding commitments.

This ensures you engage an appropriate organisation that can comply with your contractual obligations to DCJ by:

• ensuring that each third party has the relevant qualifications, capability and capacity to deliver the services (such as current legal entity status, membership of professional associations)
• ensuring that each third party has the requisite and up-to-date insurances to deliver the services, as well as the requisite and up-to-date recognition by a regulator (relevant business insurances, accreditation, certification, registration or licence, as applicable)
• ensuring that all applicable staff of each third party have a current Working with Children Check and National Police Certificate for the purpose of delivering child-related services.

In the case of subcontracting to another organisation in a consortium or fee-for-service arrangement, your due diligence also includes:

• assessing the financial viability of each third party, and its ability to remain financially viable for the term of the contract
• sighting relevant documents such as each third party’s constitution, and policies and procedures that demonstrate the organisation’s practices
• confirmation that each third party is aware of your obligations to DCJ

Conflict of interest

You are required to consider and declare any conflict of interest, actual, perceived, or potential.  

• Actual: Conflicts of Interest are where the service provider has a private interest or duty that conflicts with the performance of their obligations under the relevant contract.
• Perceived: Conflicts of Interest are where the service provider has a private interest or duty that could reasonably be perceived as conflicting with the performance of their obligations under the relevant contract.
• Potential: Conflicts of Interest arise where the service provider has a private interest or duty that may, in the future, conflict with the performance of their obligations under the relevant contract.

Your application must:

• confirm no conflicts of interest or make a declaration of any conflict of interest
• where a conflict of interest exists, state how the conflict will be managed
• attach a copy of the relevant legal status document for each third-party, for example: ASIC, ACNC, ORIC, Fair Trading NSW report/s or an ABN look up extract.
• You are only required to submit a legal status document for each third-party subcontractor. The relevant document depends on the type of entity for the third-party. Refer to the information below.

You’re required to declare in your application that you’ve performed due diligence checks.

Evidence of third-party legal status

You are required to submit a document to support the legal status of the third-party. For example:

• ASIC current and historical company for private or public company
• ACNC printed charity details extraction for registered charity
• ORIC corporation for an Aboriginal Community Controlled Corporation (ACCO) or Aboriginal organisation 
• Corporation details from the Office of Fair Trading for incorporated association or a cooperative, not a private or public company 
• ABN look up extract is required for a Trust or sole trader not registered as a private or public company or a corporation.

You are only required to submit one document. Which document is required depends on the subcontractor organisation as identified in the list above; for example, a private company requires an ASIC extract, a registered charity requires an ACNC extract.