Victorian childcare facilities putting your kids at risk

Kids are being left unsupervised, without food and even taken to the emergency department after attending these childcare centres.

More than 3000 Victorian babies and young have been traumatised, harmed, locked in, or suffered serious illness at Victorian childcare centres in 2020-2021, the latest figures show.

A total of 542 children were taken to emergency departments in ambulances and children went missing or were locked in or out of centres on 391 occasions.

— Nationally, incidents involving children suffering serious injury, illness or trauma were up 24 per cent during the pandemic compared to 2019-18.

— Overall, 16,449 children were injured or became ill at in early learning centres in 27,000 breaches of regulations, the Productivity Commission figures.

— Of these, 3296 occurred in Victorian early learning settings, including 63 per cent at long day care centres.

A total of 542 children were taken to the emergency department in ambulances, new figures reveal.

The breaches range in frequency from 192 incidents per 100 services in Victorian family day care compared to 113 for centre-based care and 29 for preschools.

Victoria has nearly 500 early learning providers designated as “working towards standards” — the second highest number in the country.

One in every 11 centres has a waiver from meeting staff ratios because of staff shortages exacerbated by the pandemic.

It comes as state authorities have taken urgent action against 72 childcare providers in 2020 and 2021, including taking Camp Australia Alamanda College Outside School Hours Care to the Magistrates Court.

The service was fined $10,000 for using an unapproved separate room to care for children to get around number limits.

G8 Education, a major provider of childcare caring for 46,000 children every day across Australia, breached standards at its centres in Wallan, Leopold, Chelsea and Cranbourne North. The breaches cover a range of serious issues including exposing children to harm, failure to offer food regularly to children, keeping inadequate records of the children in their care, inadequate supervision and inappropriate toilet and hygiene facilities.

The list of substandard care providers includes Corryong Preschool, which was issued with an emergency action notice for leaving a girl unattended on a bus for hours in 2021.

Minderoo Foundation’s Thrive by Five program chief executive Jay Weatherill said these figures reflect a crisis in the sector.

“We’ve got a situation where children’s safety is at risk, costs of early learning and childcare services are going up, many parents who want to work are being kept at home, and all while our economy is reeling from a global pandemic.

“More than 70,000 Australians did not work in 2021 due to the high cost of early learning and childcare service,

State authorities have taken urgent action against 72 childcare providers between 2020 and 2021.

“We urge all political parties to commit to universally accessible, safe, and high quality early learning and childcare,” Mr Weatherill said.

A state government spokesman said Victorian parents “should have confidence that we won’t hesitate to take action if services are operating without approval, or outside the requirements of the National Law”.

“It’s reassuring to see that Victorian early childhood services have not experienced the increase in serious incidents or confirmed breaches of regulations as in other parts of the country – with non-compliance breaches falling”.

A spokesperson for the federal Department of Education, Skills and Employment said Australian Bureau of Statistics “shows employment in the early childhood education and care sector is around the same level as February 2020 of around 200,000 educators, including almost 50,000 qualified early childhood teachers”.

The spokesperson said state regulatory authorities “are responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with safety and quality requirements under this legislation, including investigating serious incidents and issuing breaches”.

The most recent annual report from the childcare national regulation body found two-thirds of long day childcare centres are run for a profit.