Kingston childcare: Dodgy Chelsea, Cheltenham, Bentleigh centres exposed in State Government review

A number of Kingston childcare centres have failed to meet State Government safety standards. See if your location makes the list.

A number of Kingston childcare centres have failed to meet State Government safety standards. Picture: Supplied

Alarming safety failures at Victorian childcare centres have been exposed, with a number of Kingston locations making the list.

More than 230 childcare providers across the state were closed or issued with serious safety notices between 2018 and 2020, including more than 110 family day care centres found to have an “unacceptable risk to the safety, health and wellbeing of children”.

More than one Victorian childcare provider a week is shut down or censured for serious failings in their care of children, State Government documents reveal.

Children have escaped from childcare, been disciplined inappropriately, denied their dignity, cared for by criminals, housed in unsafe premises and exposed to harm.

The three Kingston businesses to be named and shamed were Creative Garden Early Learning Cheltenham, Kindy Patch Chelsea and Team Holiday Bentleigh and GESAC Bentleigh East.

Last year Creative Garden Early Learning came under fire for the serious nature of noncompliances for inadequate supervision, documents reveal.

Kindy Patch Chelsea was slapped with a conditions on service approval in 2019

due to inappropriate discipline and failure to notify certain information to the regulatory authority.

Team Holiday Bentleigh was hit with an emergency action notice in the same year for a number of failures including inadequate supervision, delivery of educational program not based on an approved learning framework, requirement to keep enrolment and other documents and failure to conduct risk assessment for excursion.

Community Childcare Association executive director Julie Price said it was hard for parents to choose quality care.

“Parents need to ask who owns the service and how it is run,” she said.

“Many private centres make profits that do not go back into improving the quality of care.”