Parents and carers deserve to know what issues a regulator has found with their chosen childcare or out of school hours (OHSC) provider, and if any action has been taken. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Two female Sydney childcare workers have been charged for allegedly assaulting a 17-month-old boy in their care – not because a regulator raised the alarm but because the centre director called the police.
Media outlets have been reporting for months about concerning allegations at childcare centres off the back of an investigation by ABC’s Four Corners into the industry.
There have been suggestions to install CCTV cameras in childcare centres and allowing police to undertake spot checks. Federal legislation is afoot to strip childcare centres of their funding if they fail to meet safety obligations.
An inquiry into the sector is set for NSW, while the ACT has promised a “crackdown” (but what form that would take is uncertain).
Working With Children Checks (WWCC), known as Working With Vulnerable People checks (WWVP) in the ACT, have also come under fire after Victorian man Joshua Brown was charged with more than 70 offences allegedly relating to eight children at a centre in Melbourne.
I’ve been doing my own digging into the sector as we await the release of documents relating to serious incidents in early childhood education and care centres across Canberra.
It would be similar to the releases received by Greens MP Abigail Boyd in NSW, who told Region she’s been seeing a pattern.
“It appears that whenever private operators, who have an incentive to make a profit [come in], they are cutting corners,” she said.
“It’s clear the regulator isn’t doing its job properly.”
So I’ve come up with my own solution to holding the regulator and providers to account:
Publish any compliance directions online and have the centres display them in-house, along with any actions taken by the regulator.
One compliance direction I’ve seen, relating to one service centre, detailed issues such as failing to carry out risk assessments for excursions, not being aware of medical conditions of children, filthy bathrooms, incomplete enrolment records of children, several educators not holding current working with children or vulnerable people checks, and a failure to report a child’s serious injury to the regulator.
The penalty for failing to comply with this particular direction was a $6800 fine for an individual or $34,400 “in any other case”.
But you cannot see these documents unless you ask for them.
I have three children in childcare. I’ve never had an issue with my childcare centre or provider.
I also don’t think we should be going on a witch hunt against educators, many who appear to be doing the best they can in a for-profit sector that seems to be more interested in getting its hands on government subsidies than looking after children.
But parents and carers have a right to know about issues in the places or with the providers where our children should be safe – both at childcares and out of hours school care (OHSC).
I wish the answer was as simple as: “Well if you’re nervous about putting your kids into care, look after them at home”.
That argument completely ignores the experiences of single parents, of parents who are shift workers, of parents/carers (mainly women) wanting to re-enter the workforce, keep up their skills and keep up their superannuation payments.
The lack of alternative childcare options means parents can’t just pull their child/ren from one centre and put them into another if issues are exposed.
But publishing issues found by the regulator might actually force the providers/owners to invest some money back into the centres rather than allegedly making educators and childcare workers cut corners to save every penny, to the detriment of the children in their care.
They say knowledge is power, so give parents and carers the power to know what is going on at their centres, and then they can hold providers to account.
And if action has been taken against a centre or service provider by a regulator, make that public too.
We deserve to know if regulators and service providers are doing their jobs.
Little lives are in your hands.
