‘Horrendous’: Leaked chat exposes heartache
An incident that left a child highly distressed and a mum “devastated” is part of the “chaos” at one of the country’s major childcare providers.
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A mum whose child was patted “very roughly” by a childcare educator and later in the day was excluded from other kids leaving him highly distressed is at a loss after the centre’s new corporate owner’s “horrendous” handling of the situation.
But she claims a takeover by one of Australia’s biggest childcare providers has seen the beautiful independent centre “absolutely destroyed” with a group of 20 parents banding together over concerns.
Sydney-based Lilyfield Early Learning Centre was acquired by one of Australia’s biggest childcare providers, Guardian Childcare and Education, last year.
Guardian has 170 centres across Australia, including in NSW, Victoria, ACT, Queensland and South Australia, providing care for more than 10,000 children each day. It provides over two million hours of care each month across its network.
Chloe* has two children in the Sydney childcare centre who attend five days a week, but said the incident involving her son had left her feeling “devastated”.
Surprisingly, Chloe doesn’t blame the educator for what happened to her son but claims staff are under enormous pressure due to changes implemented from the takeover.
She said Guardian had driven cost cutting measures and changes within the centre leaving staff overworked and stressed out – a claim the childcare provider has denied.
“Straight away parents noticed a difference in the general atmosphere in the centre and there was a mass exodus of educators, which was quite alarming,” she said.
An incident report seen by news.com.au from Guardian documented the incident involving Chloe’s son.
It was noted “an educator has patted the child very roughly”, with Chloe verbally told the patting was so loud “it echoed through the room”.
Do you have a story? Contact sarah.sharples@news.com.au
‘Absolutely horrendous’
Later that day, Chloe’s son was involved in a further incident where he kicked down a play area being set up by the educator, who then excluded him from the group of children.
Photos released on Storypark – an app used by the childcare centre to communicate with parents – painted a picture of the effect on Chloe’s son.
“My son is probably one of the quieter ones in the room, he is very sensitive, he will get upset easily,” she told news.com.au.
“I noticed the pictures of him sitting on his own. It shows his head goes down, you can see him crying and looking over at friends and he’s crying and distressed. I said to the centre look at the pictures that you have published on the app – he is isolated, visibly upset and he is two and half years old.”
Changes bring mayhem
The incident alongside changes at the centre and a slew of unfamiliar faces has left a lasting impact on her son and other children.
“Now before we got to childcare he hides behind the couch and cries all the way there and sticks to me and I have to get the educator to pry him off,” she said.
“I … have no grandparents here, so I have to put him in the centre and the guilt I feel is absolutely horrendous.”
Parents are now struggling with handing their children over in the morning, with many scathing of a new measure that they claim is aimed at cutting costs.
The policy is called family grouping, where children of all ages are grouped together in the morning and before pick-up.
“The amalgamation of children’s rooms has been absolute chaos,” Chloe said.
“Parents are walking around not knowing which children go in which room, there are young children crying and there are unfamiliar educators. It is absolute mayhem.”
Leaked chat
News.com.au has been leaked parents’ Storypark comments before the feature was disabled on the app by Guardian, which revealed increasing alarm about issues in the centre.
In particular, parents raised concerns around the family grouping decision with one parent saying drop off time was the “most vulnerable” for young children.
Parents said they were struggling to see how the changes were improving safety.
“There is a clear profit motive at play with our fees going up and service levels decreasing,” one wrote.
The parent added the “consolidated room format” meant they were consistently dropping off their child to just one educator serving breakfast.
“It does seems these changes may have more to do with the centre’s cost base and revenue per room than operational changes that benefit children or educators,” another agreed.
Another parent said their child had been involved in a nasty incident.
“It feels really premature for the babies to be playing freely with the bigger kids with less intensive supervision, which is what we signed up for … This was not the older child’s fault but a direct result of the new set up,” they commented.
“The supervision and safety of our babies is more important than forming bonds with other caregivers,” another parent noted.
Many noted the higher fees parents pay for the babies room, yet they are being placed with more children via family grouping. One person said there had been no consultation with parents and not a “great deal” of parent support for the move.
In recent times, the change in management had resulted in cut backs and educators resigning, another complained.
An increase of daily fees from $180 per day to $197 per day for the nursery room which was implemented in July last year equated to a 9.45 per cent hike, the parent added. This meant roughly an extra $4400 a year in costs.
“The substantial increase was not in line with wage growth, CPI or any other benchmark but coincidentally gobbles up all of Labors Cheaper Child Care policy increases,” they said.
“Multiply this by 92 families and there should be a more than adequate budget to employ the an appropriate amount of staff.”
The toddler room rate was also raised to $186, while the three to five year old age group were being charged $180 a day in July last year.
Another issue raised was parents said Guardian had reported the wrong family as having a child with a case of whooping cough. The mother then had to address other parents and explain it wasn’t her children, who were in attendance at the centre.
Chloe said she just “really blames Guardian”.
“In all my emails I make a point that I have no gripe with the educators or the centre manager. I see how Guardian have taken over and have provided no smooth transition period,” she said.
“There is no consistency on who is in rooms, educators have all been moved around as so many people are leaving, there are contractors in who I don’t know and the children are massively distressed and really upset at drop off and parents are struggling to get their kids to go down.”
A Guardian spokesperson said the organisation’s goal is to work with families and team members when implementing change to a centre, and clear communication is part of that process.
“There are instances where that can be done better. In this instance, stronger communication upfront around the necessity of some changes would have been beneficial to families and teams,” they said.
Cut backs
Educators have also been directed by Guardian to complete paperwork in the children’s classrooms taking their time away from the kids, according to Chloe. Guardian also changed cleaning companies resulting in educators being lumped with taking the rubbish out.
“Guardian are a private equity firm aiming for a $1 billion sale this year equating to nearly a double in profits in a number of years achieved through cut backs on full time educators and cleaning,” Chloe claimed.
But the parents collective, with 20 members across all age groups, have been pushing to meet with Guardian.
This instead has been rebuffed and comments have been disabled on the Storypark chat.
“The longer it continues and Guardian are unwilling to come to the table, the more the educators are going to get stressed,” Chloe said.
“Guardian are trying to shut us down by dealing with us in a piecemeal way with just individual parents.”
But a Guardian spokesperson denied decisions, such as family grouping, were driven by an “economic imperative” – adding it was simply not true.
“Family grouping is an industry standard practice. It is not about cost reduction as ratio requirements still apply,” they said.
“It is about ensuring children have an opportunity to socialise, to learn from children of different ages, to be exposed to language and play with children of different ages, and to ensure adequate supervision can be provided when numbers by age group are low and to ensure educators are supported.”
They said other childcare providers like Goodstart also use family grouping effectively in their 650 centres.
The spokesperson added that Guardian had invested significantly more in resources, equipment, facilities maintenance and cleaning at Lilyfield Early Learning Centre.
Overall Guardian invests tens of millions of dollars into staff development and pays educators above award wage, they added.
There had also been high staff turnover prior to Guardian acquiring the centre, they noted.
Parents pulling out children
In the meantime, Chloe added parents are leaving the centre.
Elena Di Palma Mailer is one parent who has pulled out one of her kids from Lilyfield Early Learning Centre, while she has reduced days for another child.
“I don’t have confidence in the centre and I’m looking for another centre because I fear for my kids’ safety,” she said.
“It has escalated in the last six months and it’s getting to a point where the centre is not listening to our concerns. We have vulnerable children who we want to protect.”
Ms Di Palma Mailer claimed she witnessed Guardian exceeded legal educator to child ratios for 15 minutes while she was doing pick up one day, which the centre denied.
She saw 15 children in the three-year-old room with just one educator, when the ratio is 1:10. The mum made a complaint to Guardian, who told her another educator assigned to the room was in the bathroom at the time. She has also complained to the Department of Education.
“It was chaos. There were kids jumping on top of each other and the poor educator was so overwhelmed,” she said.
“Educators are doing their best. They have been under resourced, they are overworked and told to do more within the time that they have, things like having to take out the bins which all takes away from attention on the children.”
She claimed there had been significant cuts to staffing numbers but parent’s concerns aren’t being heard.
“There have been new people every three months for a three-year-old that is a really scary place to go when you don’t know who is taking care of you,” she added.
“Drop offs have been horrendous and educators have been supporting children to get to know new staff but it’s the not staff’s fault. Guardian have put enormous pressure on well trained, existing educators who have had to quit.”
Guardian has reached out to all families at the centre, offering each of them the opportunity to speak directly to the company, the spokesperson said.
“We have had her on site at the centre, plus available for face-to-face sessions or phone calls at times that suit families. Several families have taken us up on this,” they said.
“These meetings allow the best way to hear the feedback and needs of each child in a calm environment, whilst also respecting the privacy of specific details of each child’s needs. We continue to offer this to families.”
Department of Education findings
Meanwhile, the second incident involving Chloe’s son was referred to the Department of Education which found allegations of excluding Chloe’s son “from play in the outdoor yard on 4 July 2024 was substantiated”. The department issued a caution letter to the educator.
However, Guardian went one step further and terminated the educator’s employment on July 16.
But Chloe has been left frustrated with more than 10 emails trying to obtain the internal investigation completed by Guardian – a request that has been refused on what she says is a generic privacy policy.
“I want to gain some understanding and clarity with what happened and read the documents so I can understand what occurred that day,” the lawyer added.
A Guardian spokesperson said the team member was removed from the centre, stood down pending investigation and never returned to the centre as after the investigation process and findings, their employment was terminated.
“As part of our reporting, we are required to provide evidence to related to immediate actions taken and how we responded to the incident. In many instances, we are required to apply performance management processes in response to specific incidents. This information is forwarded to the Department of Education as required and to meet our Fair work obligations,” they said.
“These are internal legal documents that enable us to assess and make appropriate decisions. It would not be appropriate to provide these specific documents to families and meet privacy legislation. This is standard sector practice, as explained to the family. Correct process was followed.”
sarah.sharples@news.com.au
Originally published as ‘Horrendous’: Leaked chat exposes heartache
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