Childcare worker blows the lid on shocking industry-wide practices and shares red flags every parent must know about

This childcare worker has blown the lid off shocking industry-wide practices that put kids at risk, while revealing how parents can spot red flags and avoid dodgy centres.

A childcare worker has blown the lid on shocking industry-wide practices she says put children at risk, while sharing tips for parents to spot red flags and avoid dodgy centres.

Erin Peebles has over seven years’ experience in the childcare sector working at centres in the Northern Territory and NSW.

As both a parent and an educator she said she has heard of a number of concerning practices, leading her to raise the alarm.

Ms Peebles said her desire to expose the truth far outweighs the risk she perceives from speaking out in a culture she claims punishes whistleblowers.

Childcare educator Erin Peebles has worked in the sector for seven years. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

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Puppets to control

Ms Peebles said she had heard about predatory providers flooding centres with unqualified staff in the quest to meet strict ratios. 

She said the practice involves centres with a high proportion of carers “working towards qualifications”.

Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) regulations requires an individual to be actively enrolled in and commenced a relevant course to be counted as “working towards”.

While this practice is allowed by ACECQA, she claimed many centres are going above the 50 per cent threshold.

Ms Peebles said she had worked in centres that regularly went above the threshold for staff working towards qualifications. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

“The risks are so high because they do not have practical hands-on skills learned through the qualifications,” she said.

“If they’ve just enrolled they lack skills and knowledge of the legislation.”

Ms Peebles said many of these individuals had no intention of staying in the industry long-term and were more concerned with gaining sponsorship on the path to permanent residency.

“When I came to Darwin I was horrified to hear of centres where 80-90 per cent of staff were working towards a qualification at a private college with difficulty speaking English.”

Ms Peebles said there are similar trends in NSW centres where trainees were enrolled in courses at “dodgy colleges” in courses they had no intention of completing.

“They need a body in the room — so they care about the bodies rather than the quality of care,” she explained.

“It’s more so a puppet they can control rather than a body, as with sponsorship comes an expectation you will stay with the provider.”

Children as ‘bags of cash’

Ms Peebles took aim at private for-profit centres.

Ms Peebles said across the industry there are concerning practices in for-profit centres where she believed administrators saw children as “bags of cash”.

She said government-run centres were often much better staffed with a better quality of care and more plentiful resources for children.

“They don’t cut corners,” she explained.

On the other hand, Ms Peebles said generally across the industry both for-profit and not-for-profit centres were worse due to constraints on staff and resources.

She advised parents to look out for red flags like high staff turnover, smaller servings of food, lots of staff working towards qualifications and the quality of toys and other resources.

“Any good centre will be over-resourced – lots of staff, enough beds for each child, newer toys and well-fed children,” she said.

Regulators with teeth

The Northern Territory has the highest proportion of centres not meeting NQS. 

Ms Peebles said she fears the NT regulator QECNT is not equipped to deal with the vast number of complaints. 

“I think failing the National Quality Standards is contributed heavily by the way QECNT are running,” she said.

“I feel that the department is under resourced and heavily overloaded with so many complaints that they wait for children to be seriously injured or severely unsafe before they act even though these services are failing NQS in other quality areas.”

Ms Peebles said she wants the Commonwealth government to “put pressure” on state and territory regulators to better enforce quality standards through more checks and follow-ups.

She would also like to see tighter Commonwealth legislation on who can set up a centre, especially around family day care providers.

An NT Department of Education spokesman said the regulator was committed to raising the standard of care across the Territory.

According to the national regulator, nearly one in five NT centres did not meet all National Quality Standards. Picture: Getty Images

“As Australia’s smallest regulatory authority, QECNT remains firmly committed to safeguarding children and supporting education and care services to meet quality standards under the National Quality Framework,” the spokesman said.

“QECNT continues to support education and care services across the Northern Territory to improve quality outcomes under the National Quality Framework.

“Through regular engagement, tailored guidance, and sector-wide initiatives QECNT is helping services strengthen performance in targeted areas and improve National Quality Standard ratings.”

The Australian Childcare Alliance declined to comment.

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Originally published as Childcare worker blows the lid on shocking industry-wide practices and shares red flags every parent must know about