Early childhood regulator probes Only About Children in Eynesbury

A daycare centre in Melbourne’s west is being investigated after kids were caught fighting, using scissors unsupervised and scaling the high fences.

The state’s peak early childhood regulator is probing a popular daycare centre in Melbourne’s west after kids were caught fighting and scaling high fences near a busy road.

The Herald Sun understands a number of alarming incidents have occurred at Only About Children in Eynesbury over the past year.

It’s believed parents have been left in the dark about the altercations with the centre failing to notify them immediately.

Instead, some mothers and fathers have found out through social media posts.

In one case, a girl was hit, punched and kicked by other kids while at the centre.

On another occasion, a boy cut a chunk of his own hair with scissors while he was unsupervised by an adult.

Just this week, two children scaled the centre’s fence just metres away from a busy road.

The children appeared to have used a piece of play equipment to hoist themselves above the height of both an internal fence and the centre’s perimeter fence.

The mother of one of the kids was only made aware of the terrifying incident after she saw an image posted in a local community group on Facebook.

Kids pictured scaling the fence at Only About Children in Eynesbury. Picture: Supplied

It comes as another mum, who asked not to be named, told the Herald Sun some kids were “petrified” of attending the centre in fear they would be hurt by others.

“There are a lot of tears, kids not wanting to go,” she said.

“This is quite upsetting because a lot of these kids have been there since they were 12 to 18 months old.”

The mum said parents have complained to management about the lack of transparency but it’s fallen on deaf ears.

“It’s quite concerning, it’s quite scary, like these kids are kindergarten age from three to five years old,” she said.

“Their ability to speak up isn’t the greatest, they can’t exactly tell you everything that’s going on so finding out things like that through Facebook posts is quite scary.

“When parents make a complaint to the centre, nothing keeps getting done about it.”

The mum said some parents had pulled their kids out of the centre but others were not able to given the distance to the next closest centre.

In a statement, Only About Children said it was aware of the incidents including recent complaints about “behavioural challenges”.

Product, quality and safety director Lisa Jones apologised for any distress caused to families.

“The health, safety, and wellbeing of every child at our centre remains our top priority,” she said.

“Along with our current operations discipline, higher than ratio staffing and bringing in specialised support roles to assist onsite at this centre, we are committed to supporting all children at all levels.”

A Department of Education spokesperson said the incidents were under investigation.

“The early childhood regulator is aware of incidents reported at a service in Eynesbury,” they said.

“As these incidents are under investigation, we are unable to comment further.”