Child safety Qld: Acquiring a blue card is disturbingly easy

People trusted to work with children, including childcare workers, are given no training on child safety as part of the only box they have to tick to legally care for kids. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Queenslanders serving cocktails and canapes receive more safety training and testing than nannies, sports coaches and tutors.

People trusted to work with children, including childcare workers, are given no training on child safety as part of the only box they have to tick to legally care for kids – securing a Blue Card.

As it stands, and Queenslander who doesn’t have a criminal record and can prove their identity can fill out an online form in under 30 minutes — no testing required.

Meanwhile people pouring beers and serving steaks at the pub are required to undergo up to six hours of training and testing on food safety and the responsible service of alcohol.

And the training must be a nationally recognised program, with some interstate certifications deemed not good enough in Queensland.

The regulation and certification of childcare workers has come back into the spotlight this week after Victorian childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown, 26, was charged with 70 child sex abuse offences relating to eight alleged victims.

It has prompted federal Education Minister Jason Clare to commit to introducing snap legislation to allow the government to cut federal funds to childcare centres that “aren’t up to scratch”.

Child safety advocates and authorities have also called for early intervention and child abuse prevention training.

Child protection advocate Hetty Johnston

Leading advocate Hetty Johnston, who will launch her own training program in conjunction with Bond University next week, said a unified national framework on how to care for all vulnerable people — including children and the aged — was needed.

“We’re not taking this seriously, it’s just woeful, the training is woeful,” she said.

“We go and do training to pour a beer, but you can go and work with children without any kind of substantial training at all. I mean … it’s sort of telling about how complacent government and actually we all are around the safety of our children.”

Queensland Family and Child Commission principal commissioner Luke Twyford said he was discussing mandatory child abuse prevention and early intervention training as part of a Working With Children Check — known as a Blue Card in Queensland — with his national counterparts.

Monster pedophile Ashley Paul Griffith.

PeakCare chief executive Tom Allsop said without safeguards, worker screening checks along could create a perception of safety.

“While the Blue Card system needs an overhaul, there also needs to be a greater focus on sector-wide reform through the introduction of child safe standards,” he said.

Mr Clare said on Thursday that if the allegations against Mr Brown were proven true, then “the system has failed these families”.

“It has taken too long for governments to act,” he said.

“This is sickening and it demands serious action. We’ve already taken action around mobile phones in childcare centres and mandatory reporting.

“But there’s more that we have to do – there’s a lot more we have to do.”

Originally published as Child safety Qld: Acquiring a blue card is disturbingly easy