Survey: Children at risk, childcare educators at breaking point

Children are at risk of harm and educators are at breaking point as centres breach staffing ratios and cut corners on safety, a new survey shows.

Childcare educators have raised the alarm in a survey addressing the state of the industry.

Children are at risk of harm and educators are at breaking point as centres breach staffing ratios and cut corners on safety, a new survey has revealed.

A United Workers Union survey of 2000 childcare workers across Australia, which included responses from about 600 Queensland early learning staff, found educators “can’t guarantee the safety of children” amid understaffing and a push to maximise profits.

The results show three quarters of educators say centres are operating below minimum staffing levels, with 42 per cent saying it happens every day.

At least one childcare educator reported their own centre over concerns about staff skill levels.

Further data found 72 per cent of respondents reported that understaffing had resulted in more children hurting themselves or others with 69 per cent saying education standards had been compromised.

A Queensland educator who responded to the survey said there was “no education” happening.

“ … and the level of care is not what I would consider to be acceptable, when educators can only just scrape through to survive the day with minimal staffing,” they said.

Another educator from Queensland said they felt staff lacked “basic skills” and they had self-reported their own centre to the department.

“I have been begging for help with managing … children with challenging behaviours, but I’m not being given any,” another educator said.

The survey also found for-profit centres were more likely to exploit loopholes in a bid to cut costs.

Meanwhile, only 12.8 per cent of Queensland childcare centres have official staff waivers according to Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority, with UWU early learning director Carolyn Smith saying a “staffing loophole is being widely exploited and educators are regularly left understaffed in their rooms”.

“We need to support educators to do their best work, and our survey results show that the system is failing them and, in turn, the children in their care,” Ms Smith said.

Griffith University Early Childhood Education Lecturer Dr Christa van Aswegen said it was the “most important” time in a child’s life because it laid the foundation for their future development.

“The levels of child abuse and negligence are unacceptable,” Dr van Aswegen said.

“While there are many child care centres that are wonderful, there are others who are not meeting the regulatory standards for early childhood education services.”

Dr van Aswegen said there were real “quality concerns” in early childcare centres.

“There are definitely staffing issues,” she said.

Dr van Aswegen said there were also “disproportionately high” numbers of staffing waivers.

“I think we should make childcare not for profit, because the data from Australia’s childcare consistently shows that the for-profit childcare average rated lower quality than not for profit services.”

“I think an environment where profits are put before child protection and staff working conditions sets the scene for breaches in law and regulations and then also, the consequences are quite minimal if they do breach,” she said.

Queensland Education Minister John Paul-Langbroek will today hold an urgent roundtable of sector stakeholders in Cairns today following the arrest of a Melbourne childcare worker on 70 charges of alleged child sex abuse.