Edge Early Learning Centre at Royal Park forced to count children every 15 minutes after kids left alone
SA’s education watchdog has imposed strict new supervision rules on a western suburbs childcare centre following a second safety incident at the company's operations.
A western suburbs childcare centre must conduct headcounts every 15 minutes after a group of children were left unsupervised “for a short time”.
The state’s childcare watchdog has also ordered the Edge Early Learning centre at Royal Park to roster extra staff and limit the number of children on site.
It comes after the operator’s Plympton centre was put under strict conditions last month following an incident involving a child left in a classroom while children were moving to another area.
Edge Early Learning runs 24 centres across South Australia.
A spokeswoman said parents were notified of the incident at its Royal Park centre.
“Recently, a small group of children at our Royal Park centre were in their classroom, safe and unharmed, but not directly supervised for a short time,” she said.
“Families of those children were contacted personally on the same day and provided with clear information.
“While we were grateful that all children were safe, we immediately took the opportunity to strengthen our supervision practices and proactively notified the Education Standards Board (ESB).”
The spokeswoman said the centre had “already met in full” the conditions imposed by the ESB.
“We have communicated openly with families and kept them informed at every step, and we will continue to work closely with the ESB to ensure the strongest safeguards are in place,” she said.
On September 10, the Royal Park centre was issued an emergency action notice, requiring it to:
Conduct headcounts of children every 15 minutes.
Roster an extra educator in four rooms.
Limit children at the centre to 62 at any one time.
These conditions will remain in place until September 24.
The Edge Early Learning centre in Plympton was issued an emergency action notice by the ESB on August 22, also requiring staff to conduct headcounts every 15 minutes.
The spokeswoman confirmed that the ESB “has since closed out the emergency action notice for our Plympton centre as they were satisfied we had met all requirements”.
However, the company remains under a year-long program, known as an enforceable undertaking, which requires it to make improvements by August 28 next year.
These include bringing in an external consultant and organisational psychologist.
So far this financial year the ESB has issued various childcare and after-school care centres across SA with at least 31 compliance or emergency action notices, or imposed other conditions.
The state government recently announced an extra $21.8m for the ESB to conduct more checks on centres over the next five years.
That included an immediate allocation of $900,000 and a promise of more unannounced inspections.
It follows a $7m funding boost in August 2023.
SA Education Minister Blair Boyer said, since then, inspections had increased 60 per cent and the number of inspectors had doubled to 39.
By the end of 2026 the ESB will have cleared a backlog of delayed scheduled inspections, Mr Boyer said, and would begin three-yearly inspections.
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Originally published as Edge Early Learning Centre at Royal Park forced to count children every 15 minutes after kids left alone
