Calls to review planning and approval process of childcare centres in high-rise buildings
Childcare centres — some with hundreds of children and babies — located in high-rise buildings have been described as a “ticking time bomb” amid concerns over “hazardous” evacuation plans. SEE THE LIST OF HIGH-RISE CHILDCARE CENTRES IN SYDNEY.
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Childcare centres — some with hundreds of children and babies — located in high-rise buildings have been described as a “ticking time bomb” amid concerns over “hazardous” evacuation plans.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal there are urgent calls for the NSW government to review its planning and approval processes regarding the size and location of new childcare centres with fears some facilities are slipping under the radar.
At Learn and Play Management in Rhodes, which has 136 places, staff would have to carry children from six weeks to six years down from the seventh floor in the event of an emergency.
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At the “high rise” Reggio Emilia Learning Centre in Parramatta, which has 200 places, children would have to negotiate three flights of stairs then emerge into a concrete jungle where it appears there is no appropriate place to hold them safely.
The World Tower Childcare Centre in Sydney’s CBD, which has 90 places, is located four storeys above ground.
More than a dozen childcare centres in Sydney’s CBD are in office towers with at least one located four storeys above ground. And because high-rise childcare is relatively new, it is not incorporated specifically into the National Construction Code, which sets the minimum obligatory requirements for safety in the design and construction of new buildings. Under the NCC, there are specific requirements for evacuating people from places like aged care facilities and hospitals — but none apply to childcare centre in multistorey buildings.
Opposition spokeswoman for early childhood education Kate Washington said it was “unthinkable that large services are being approved with hazardous emergency plans”.
“How can more than 200 babies and young children be evacuated safely in the arms of staff via stairwells onto busy suburban roads? It’s a horrible accident waiting to happen,” she said. “A review of the planning laws is well overdue.”
Parramatta councillor Pierre Esber was angered to learn of the Parramatta centre, saying: “It’s a ticking time bomb … it’s not right at all.”
He said councils had lost the power to properly regulate new childcare development applications after controversial changes to planning codes in 2017 made it more difficult for them to refuse new centres.
Early Childhood Education Minister Sarah Mitchell said every early childhood service was required by law to conduct a risk assessment of potential emergencies. “These plans must be developed in close consultation with relevant authorities,” she said.
World Tower Childcare director Natalie Debes said it takes children and educators “no longer than 60 seconds” to assemble into a fire safety haven located inside the centre which leads out to Liverpool Street.
The centre has 21 staff members.
“The children regularly practice walking down the stairs slowly and calmly by holding onto the hand rail or their educator’s hand,” Ms Debes said.
“For our younger babies who are unable to walk, we use baby carriers which are placed over the educator’s shoulders and allow us to then carry two babies in each carrier.”
A former owner and developer of the Rhodes childcare centre said the facility had three fire escapes with either 25 stairs, 52 stairs or 59 stairs access to the ground floor.
“The centre’s staff and management practice a complete evacuation of all children four times a year and so have by now practiced this exercise around 784 times,” the former owner said.
“These sort of state of the art facilities are a considerable step up from the days of converted homes and other cheap and cheerful childcare solutions... and provide a high quality, safe and secure solution for a family's early childhood education needs.”
Other childcare centres named in this story have not responded to The Daily Telegraph’s request for comment.
EXAMPLES OF HIGH-RISE CHILDCARE CENTRES IN SYDNEY:
Reggio Emilia Early Learning Centre, Level 3, 30-34 Cowper Street, Parramatta NSW, 200 places
Learn & Play Management Pty Ltd, Rhodes Shopping Centre, Level 7, 1 Rider Boulevard, Rhodes, 136 places
World Tower Childcare, level 4, 14/87-89 Liverpool Street, Sydney, 90 places
ToBe Me Early Learning Burwood — level 3, 11-15 Deane St Burwood, 120 places
Only About Children — level 3, 207 Pacific Highway St Leonards, 98 places
Explore and Develop Dee Why — level 4, 834 Pittwater Road, 96 places
Little Kingdom Childcare — level 4, 111 Harrington St The Rocks, 90 places
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