Child Link

What is Child Link?

Child Link is a digital tool that displays information about a child to authorised key professionals who have responsibility for child wellbeing and safety. Child Link shows limited but critical information, such as a child’s participation in key early childhood and education services.

By providing this information, Child Link helps authorised key professionals to:

collaborate with other services and professionals working with the child and their family
make more informed decisions about the wellbeing, safety and support needs of a child in their school or service
identify needs, issues and vulnerabilities that may be present earlier and provide the support necessary to prevent an escalation of harm.

Security and privacy are core to the design of Child Link and strict safeguards are in place to protect information.

Who is authorised to use Child Link?

The information displayed on Child Link can only be viewed by authorised users.

Most users are professionals who have regular contact with children and families, who can identify and provide support early where there is a wellbeing or safety concern. Professionals must be authorised by a designated senior staff member within their school or service to gain access to Child Link. Authorised professionals may include:

maternal and child health nurses
key staff in early childhood education settings
school principals, student wellbeing officers and key teaching staff
child protection workers.

What do I need to know?

Child Link shows limited but critical information, such as a child’s participation in key early childhood and education services.
This information comes from government services that support children and young people, including:
- maternal and child health services
- supported playgroups
- kindergartens and
- schools.
Child Link does not display or have the functionality to input case notes, professional opinions or health records. Child Link does not offer contact details of the child or their families such as phone numbers or addresses.
The number of people who can access the information in Child Link in each organisation, early childhood service or school is limited.
Most Child Link Users can only view information about the children attending their school or service.
Child Link is supported by technology that brings together information from existing systems and does not require people to opt in. As set out in the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005, consent is not required from parents, carers or young people to display information on Child Link.
Information displayed on Child Link is only accessible to a prescribed group of authorised users who have responsibility for the wellbeing or safety of children.
Professionals need to be authorised by a designated senior staff member within their school or service.
Comprehensive training and support has been developed to help authorised professionals understand their obligations and responsibilities, prior to accessing Child Link.
Professionals must undertake compulsory training before gaining access to Child Link. For more information, see Training for the information sharing and MARAM reforms.

Child Link Secretary’s Guidelines

The Child Link Secretary’s Guidelines detail Child Link’s operational, access and usage policies including:

how information on Child Link is managed
who can access Child Link and what information can be shared
how authorised organisations can use Child Link to support the wellbeing and safety needs of children in their professional care.

The Child Link Secretary's Guidelines have been developed in accordance with section 46S of the Child Wellbeing and Safety Act 2005, and are accompanied by a suite of resources, tools and training for Child Link Users.

Access the Child Link Secretary's Guidelines

For more information on the Child Link Secretary's Guidelines, please contact the Department of Education at childlink@education.vic.gov.au.

The Child Information Sharing Scheme (CISS) allows authorised organisations to share information to support child wellbeing or safety.

Some organisations worked together to share information before CISS was introduced. However, CISS has expanded the legal permissions for professionals to share and request information from other professionals.

Together, Child Link and CISS give professionals the clarity and tools they need to share vital information to help improve outcomes for children and young people in Victoria.

To find out more information about CISS, visit the CISS page.

Accessing Child Link

If you are an authorised professional and have completed training and all the steps required to activate your Child Link access, you can click on the following link to log in to Child Link.

Child Link

More information

For more information on Child Link, please contact the Department of Education at childlink@education.vic.gov.au

Education

Updated 2 April 2025