PlayHQ launches PlaySafe, powered by Oho to Automate Child Safeguarding

PlayHQ and Oho Forge Exclusive Partnership to Automate Child Safeguarding; Basketball Victoria Leads Early Adoption Setting a New Standard in Sport

PlayHQ, Australia’s leading sports registration platform, and Oho, Australia’s first dedicated credential verification system, have announced an exclusive strategic partnership set to significantly enhance child safety through the creation of PlaySafe, powered by Oho. Basketball Victoria is leading the way as the first sport to integrate this Australia-first innovation. 

The partnership between PlayHQ and Oho is set to transform child safeguarding by introducing a technology-enabled solution that tackles the longstanding administrative burdens and compliance gaps faced by grassroots sports organisations. PlaySafe, powered by Oho, developed collaboratively through this alliance, automates the collection, monitoring, and notification of Working With Children Check (WWCC) information across Australia. 

Tim MacKinnon, Chief Executive Officer of PlayHQ, emphasised the significance of the partnership. “PlaySafe automates and unifies a fragmented manual process, for the first time effectively creating a national registry of the state-based WWCC data,” said MacKinnon.

“Our partnership with Oho brings together best-in-class technology to deliver a solution that will bring peace of mind to parents, reduce compliance gaps for governing bodies, and give volunteers more time to focus on the club and its members, rather than chase paperwork.”

Liv Whitty, Chief Executive Officer of Oho, highlighted the power of technological collaboration in regulatory environments. “The partnership between PlayHQ and Oho proves that where the gap exists, technology can step in,” stated Whitty. “Community sport runs on trust and this partnership means trust is backed by simple, reliable systems that make it safer for everyone.” 

Oho’s platform integrates WWCC management and verification directly into individual profiles within PlayHQ, avoiding any extra steps or new software for users to navigate.

Ben Pahl, Chief Operating Officer Basketball Victoria says it’s a no-brainer for sports to add PlayHQ’s PlaySafe, powered by Oho feature. He says:

“Across community sport, once people know that PlaySafe exists, everyone will be asking ‘When are we going to start using it?"

Basketball Victoria is made up of over 140 associations and almost 500 clubs, with more than 220,000 registered participants and accounts for over 50% of national participation. Ben says the WWCC register of each individual club and association is usually managed by a volunteer committee member – “often someone who’s already busy juggling kids, work, and their own sport – and it requires constant chasing up to even collect people’s WWCC numbers, let alone monitor the validity of checks over time. It puts a huge amount of stress and risk on that person, and lots of volunteers are walking away from these roles,” Ben says.

Another challenge with the manual system is that individuals often apply for their WWCC by nominating the main club they’re involved with, but many participants in community sport are attached to five or six clubs. Notifications like expiry or revocation are often only sent by letter to the primary club.

“Without PlaySafe, there’s no central check for us as the governing body to ensure everything is complied with,” Ben says. “Now, if a card is revoked, a notification will be sent straight to our Integrity Department and we can contact the club and make sure a coach isn’t working with kids until there’s a valid card back in the system.”

Basketball Victoria says PlaySafe, powered by Oho, is a vital addition to community sport.

“We are always asking, ‘Are we doing everything we can to keep the sport safe?’. Once you know this is possible, you have to do it” Ben added.

PlaySafe, powered by Oho, is available as an optional integrated feature on the PlayHQ platform, empowering clubs and associations to prioritise the well-being of their participants, fostering greater trust and encouraging more Australians to experience the life-changing impact of community sport.

How PlaySafe works‍

When a participant registers in PlayHQ in a safeguarding-obligated role (like coach or team manager), they enter their WWCC information. This data is securely sent to Oho for real-time verification against state and territory databases. Oho then performs regular automated re-checks and immediately alerts key personnel, including governing bodies’ integrity departments, of any revocation or expiry records for immediate action. Governing bodies, associations, and clubs can monitor compliance status directly in the PlayHQ admin portal and in real time.

‍

‍

About PlayHQ

PlayHQ is a competition management platform partnering with leading sports organisations across Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, including Basketball Australia, Australian Football League, Netball Australia, Cricket Australia, Cricket New Zealand, and Hockey New Zealand. Developed from five years of feedback, supporting over 7 million registrations and over 100,000 administrators and volunteers, PlayHQ is on a mission to unlock the life-changing power of grassroots sport by driving participation and engagement. The platform features one unified flow to collect and disperse payments, one participant profile in a single database, one unified interface for administrators to automate tasks and communications and one app to engage participants. For more information visit get.playhq.com

About Oho

Oho is Australia’s first dedicated credential verification platform, built to protect children and vulnerable people by automating the screening lifecycle for workers and volunteers. Through integrations with systems like PlayHQ, Oho delivers continuous real-time checking and rapid notification. To date, Oho has detected over 360 red flags, enabling organisations to take immediate safeguarding action, and saved more than 110,000 hours in administrative burden. Trusted by over 130 organisations nationwide, Oho is enabling safer environments across care, community, and sport. For more information visit weareoho.com

About Basketball Victoria

Basketball Victoria (BV) is the peak body for basketball in Victoria. It is a not-for-profit organisation, and member driven governing body providing a range of services for over 140 affiliated associations in both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria. For more information about Basketball Victoria, its partners and programs visit www.basketballvictoria.com.au

‍

‍